Liaisons are invited by the Task Force to participate in Community Guide-related activities. Their primary purpose is to:

• provide views, concerns, and ideas of their organizations and constituents to help the Task Force develop useful reviews and recommendations;  
• serve as or help identify experts to participate in the systematic review process; and
• share information with their organizations and constituents.

Liaisons are also requested to:

• translate Task Force recommendations to help members and constituents put them into action
• disseminate Task Force recommendations among members and constituents; and
• provide feedback on how recommendations were translated, disseminated and used, and how well recommendations and findings met the needs of members and constituents

• Federal Agency Liaisons to the Task Force
• Organization Liaisons to the Task Force

Federal Agency Liaisons to the Task Force

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Federal Agency Liaisons to the Task Force
Biosketches

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Liaison: Therese Miller, DrPH
Therese Miller is interim director of the Prevention and Care Management Portfolio as well as a senior program coordinator for the USPSTF Center for Primary Care, Prevention and Clinical Partnerships at AHRQ. Dr. Miller has more than 10 years experience managing public health projects including the Hospital-Based Rural Health Care Program, Pathways to Adulthood: A Three Generation Urban Study, and the National Evaluation of The Healthy Steps for Young Children Program. She holds a doctoral degree in public health and a certificate in health communications. Her interests include social marketing and public health.

Alternate Liaison: Mary B. Barton, MD, MPP
Mary B. Barton is the scientific director of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, AHRQ. Dr. Barton is an internist, and she also holds a master’s in public policy. Prior to coming to AHRQ, Dr. Barton’s federally funded research projects included: analysis of access to cancer screening for vulnerable populations within managed care systems, benefits and harms of prophylactic mastectomy in women at elevated risk for breast cancer, and the impact of false positive mammography readings. Her most recent research focuses on decision-making around stopping mammography screening in old age, and overuse of pap smears in the elderly. Dr. Barton has a clinical interest in and has presented widely about the performance of the clinical breast examination.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevention Research Centers

Liaison: Barbara Gray, MIA, MLn
As the public health analyst and PRC research dissemination team lead, Barbara Gray manages policy, communications, and dissemination for the PRC Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She holds graduate degrees in information management and international affairs, including a concentration in international media and communication. She has been formally associated with the PRC Program since 1999. Ms. Gray has worked at CDC since 1988 in areas of infectious and chronic disease. Her achievements include serving as the senior technical editor for the Surgeon General’s 1992 report on smoking and health (in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization) and working with the Task Force on Genetics and Public Health, which defined the current Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention at CDC. Before joining CDC, Ms. Gray worked in technical communications and consumer marketing in the computer industry.

Alternate Liaison: Jo Anne Grunbaum, EdD
Jo Anne Grunbaum is the team leader of the Research and Evaluation Team for the PRC Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her office funds academic health centers to conduct prevention research using a community-based participatory approach. Her team developed and implemented a national evaluation of the PRC Program. Dr. Grunbaum’s research activities focus on the health of youth with specific interest in determinants of risk behaviors and health outcomes. She has 21 years experience in design and implementation of research related to the health of children and adolescents.

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Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Liaison: Wendy E. Braund, MD, MPH, MSEd
Wendy E. Braund is the Luther L. Terry Senior Fellow in Preventive Medicine and senior clinical advisor at the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), Office of Public Health and Science, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her responsibilities include prevention policy development, implementation, and analysis as well as prevention education for the residents, medical, nursing and public health students and emerging scholars who rotate through ODPHP. Her areas of interest relevant to the Community Guide include health policy, injury prevention and control, women’s health, adolescent health, and environmental/occupation health. During the course of her residency, she completed rotations and projects in all of these areas. She is also on committees and community advisory boards reflecting these interests. Her interest in injury prevention is further informed by her two years of neurosurgical residency prior to entering preventive medicine, and her interest in adolescent health is grounded in her previous professional life as a teacher and school counselor.

Alternate Liaison: Debra Nichols, MD, MPH
Debra Nichols is a public health advisor in the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), Office of Public Health and Science, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this role, she staffs the Healthy People 2020 Federal Interagency Workgroup, serves as the Healthy People 2010 liaison to four focus areas (disability and secondary conditions, family planning, immunization and infectious disease, vision and hearing) as well as formal and informal partners, and acts as liaison to various HHS offices and federal agencies. In addition to her background as a geriatrician, Dr. Nichols has worked on Capitol Hill. She has professional experience as a health policy consultant and lobbyist and extensive experience in the area of care giving.

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Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Office of Patient Care Services, VA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Liaison: Leila C. Kahwati, MD, MPH
Leila C. Kahwati is the clinical deputy director at the VA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. She serves as medical officer for many of the center’s clinical activities and oversees the center’s collaborative research and evaluation activities. Dr. Kahwati’s experience and professional interests include obesity/weight management, clinical preventive services, and quality improvement within healthcare systems. She is board-certified in family medicine and general preventive medicine/public health.

Alternate Liaison: Linda S. Kinsinger, MD, MPH
Linda Kinsinger is director of the National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, a field-based unit of the Office of Patient Care Services within VA Central Office. She is also the chief consultant for preventive medicine for the Veterans Health Administration. Dr. Kinsinger’s experience and professional interests include screening, immunizations, and quality improvement within healthcare systems. She is board certified in internal medicine and general preventive medicine/public health.

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National Institutes of Health

Liaison: Martina V. Taylor, MT (ASCP)
Martina V. Taylor is senior advisor for disease prevention with the NIH. She chairs the trans-NIH Prevention Research Coordinating Committee and serves as principal contact and liaison on behalf of the NIH regarding disease prevention and health promotion activities. Her organization, the Office of Disease Prevention, provides overall coordination and guidance within the NIH concerning disease prevention and health promotion initiatives as well as policies and activities, and collaborates in formulating research initiatives and policies that promote public health. Ms. Taylor's responsibilities include communicating information on the NIH disease prevention research portfolio and collaborating with other agencies and organizations to ensure a science base in the development of programs and activities. She also serves as NIH representative on numerous HHS-level and interagency-level committees for major initiatives such as Healthy People 2010 and Healthy People 2020. Her work has focused on building partnerships among HHS agencies and identifying opportunities for collaboration.

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Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Liaison: Kevin D. Hennessy, PhD
Kevin D. Hennessy is the science to service coordinator for SAMHSA. Dr. Hennessy provides leadership to SAMHSA’s Science to Service Initiative—a systematic interagency effort to promote greater use of effective, evidence-based mental health and substance abuse interventions within routine clinical and community-based settings and to strengthen the use of feedback from the field to influence and frame services research programs. He has a doctorate in clinical psychology and a master’s in public policy, and is a licensed psychologist in the state of Maryland, currently providing psychiatric triage services part-time at Howard County General Hospital, a component of the Johns Hopkins Hospital system. He has published more than two dozen articles about mental health and substance abuse financing and service delivery issues.

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United States Air Force

Liaison: Daniel Burnett, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Daniel Burnett, Col, USAF, MC, FS, is a preventive medicine consultant for the Air Force Medical Operations Agency (AFMOA), where he leads population health implementation strategies for the Air Force Surgeon General's Office. As the senior executive leader for population health he oversees creation, prototyping, deployment and evaluation of Air Force population health policies and programs. In addition to other roles, Dr. Burnett conducts and facilitates projects and studies in clinical preventive services, health promotion, fitness, health care optimization, and disease prevention and management, including Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Management. His professional interests include environmental and worksite interventions to improve eating behavior and/or physical activity, cardiovascular risk assessment and management, and the effects of physical activity and obesity on health.

Alternate Liaison: Kevin A. Fajardo, MD, MPH, MTMH
Kevin A. Fajardo, Capt, USAF, MC, is a preventive medicine physician with the Air Force. Dr. Fajardo manages the CRAM tool (Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Management) used by the Air Force for cardiovascular risk stratification, coordinates the HOPE initiative aimed at improving dietary habits and level of physical activity by decreasing common barriers in the workplace, and serves as a member of an investigative panel looking at the harms of dietary supplement use on the active duty Air Force population. His professional interests include physical activity and its impact on long-term cardiovascular health, dietary habits and supplement use in weight management, and the importance of vaccine administration and understanding of true risks and benefits.

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United States Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine

Liaison: Linda Spencer, PhD, RN
Linda Spencer, Col. (ret) has 25 years active and reserve duty in the U.S. Army, over 20 years of university level teaching experience and is currently director of the Public Health Nursing Leadership Program at Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. She administers the Public Health Nursing Masters program, including budget planning, curriculum development, student supervision, and teaching. She also teaches emergency preparedness classes to healthcare professionals and is certified in Advanced Disaster Life Support. Dr. Spencer’s expertise and key interests include military health issues, health education distance learning, adult education principles, and emergency preparedness.

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United States Navy Medicine

Liaison: William (Bill) Calvert, MS, MPH, MBA
Bill Calvert is deputy of the Population Health Department of the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center. In this role, he provides executive oversight of the Department’s management team, which is comprised of three divisions: Preventive Medicine, Health Promotion, and the Epi-Data Center. He also administers policies and exercises independent management control to ensure execution of the Department’s core product lines and services, and serves as the primary technical advisor for Health Promotion and principal consultant to the Health Promotion community. His key areas of interest and expertise are worksite health promotion and dissemination of Community Guide information, translated from scientific reviews and Task Force recommendations, to health promotion practitioners for programmatic use.

Alternate Liaison: Patricia W. Dorn, CAPT, NC, USN
Patricia Dorn is the population health program manager for the U.S. Navy Medicine, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. She is an active duty Navy Nurse Corps Captain currently assigned to the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington D.C. She is the program manager of the Population Health programs, which include Health Promotion and Wellness, Individual Medical Readiness, Physical Readiness Program, and Periodic Health Assessment. In this role, she collaborates with the Navy and Marine Corps for policy development.

Organization Liaisons to the Task Force
Biosketches

American Academy of Nurse Practitioners

Liaison: Mary Jo Goolsby, EdD, MSN, NP-C, FAANP
Mary Jo Goolsby is director of research and education at AANP. She oversees AANP’s continuing education program and all AANP research initiatives. The education component of her position includes development of educational activities, coordination of expert panels, creation of clinical tools, and accreditation of formal nurse practitioner continuing education programs. The research aspect involves oversight of the only U.S. national NP database, annual census surveys, periodic member surveys, large-scale sample surveys, and direction of the only national NP Practice Based Research Network (PBRN). Dr. Goolsby has a doctorate in education, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in nursing, and has been an adult nurse practitioner for over 25 years. She was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in 2003. Her nurse practitioner practice has included general adult health, endocrinology, and pulmonology. Additional roles have included those of educator, administrator, and researcher. Dr. Goolsby has authored three books, several chapters and articles. She is a frequent speaker on issues related to nurse practitioners and healthcare.

Alternate Liaison: JoEllen Wynne, RN, MSN, FNP-BC
JoEllen Wynne is the education and research specialist for AANP and maintains part time practice in a multi-disciplinary family practice clinic. In her AANP position, she participates in development of educational activities, coordination of expert panels, creation of clinical tools, and accreditation of formal nurse practitioner continuing education programs. Her research responsibilities include participation in coordination of projects for the only national Nurse Practitioner Practice Based Research Network. Ms. Wynne has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing and has been a Certified Family Nurse Practitioner for 10 years. Her practice has included family practice, internal medicine, emergency department and retail healthcare settings. She has also owned and operated an independent nurse practitioner family practice and functioned as administrator/practitioner for an internal medicine faculty practice clinic.

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American Academy of Pediatrics

Liaison: Joseph F. Hagan, Jr., MD, FAAP
Joseph F. Hagan, Jr. is a clinical professor in pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the Vermont Children's Hospital. He is co-chairperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures Education Center Project Advisory Committee and Co-Chairperson of the Bright Futures Steering Committee with responsibility for developing and implementing the third edition of Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision for Infants, Children and Adolescents. Dr. Hagan chairs the Vermont Citizen's Advisory Board for the Vermont Agency of Human Services Department of Children and Families, and he also practices primary care pediatrics in Burlington, Vermont. Dr. Hagan's professional interests include teaching primary care pediatrics and developmental and behavioral pediatrics.

Alternate Liaison: Darcy Steinberg-Hastings, MPH
Director, Division of Developmental Pediatrics and Preventive Services, American Academy of Pediatrics

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American Academy of Physician Assistants

Alternate Liaison: Marie-Michèle Léger, MPH, PA-C
Marie-Michèle Léger is the director of international and clinical affairs for AAPA. In addition to representing AAPA at clinical and scientific meetings, she disseminates findings to members, and works to promote the physician assistant profession to professional organizations and governmental agencies, both domestically and internationally. Ms. Léger has professional experience in the areas of vaccine-preventable diseases, adolescent sexual health, and access to health care. She also maintains interests in infection control, health care-associated infection, and emergency preparedness.

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American Public Health Association

Liaison: Peter Orris, MD, MPH
Peter Orris is professor and chief of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinical Service at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center. In addition, Dr. Orris has spent over 30 years teaching residents and practicing internal and occupational medicine at the John H. Stroger Hospital (formerly Cook County Hospital) where he chaired the Institutional Review Board and recently served as president of the medical staff. In addition, Dr. Orris oversees projects that include research and educational work with trade union and community groups in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Orris has authored many peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and governmental reports on topics such as occupational exposures and injuries, workplace ethics, health policy, job stress and health care in Cuba. His areas of professional expertise and interest include occupational and environmental health, health care systems, research ethics, and public health.

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America’s Health Insurance Plans

Liaison: Casey Korba, MS
Casey Korba is program manager for public health and prevention at AHIP. She works with AHIP member health plans and stakeholder partners on projects that support and advance health insurance plans’ initiatives in overweight/obesity and general wellness, clinical preventive services, and community preventive services and partnerships. Her key areas of interest include obesity, worksite health, physical activity, nutrition, and tobacco. Her expertise in these areas includes leading AHIP’s Obesity Initiative, health plan trends and innovations in health risk assessment, and collaboration with key organizations to address tobacco issues specific to managed care and the worksite.

Alternate Liaison: Bob Rehm, MBA
Bob Rehm is vice president of public health and clinical strategies at AHIP and directs the organization’s prevention, chronic care, health disparities, and performance measurement initiatives. The clinical affairs team works with health insurers, physicians, and key stakeholders in collaborative efforts that improve the delivery of evidence-based care. Other professional interests include vaccine and immunization policy, tobacco control, health and wellness, quality improvement, return on investment analysis, incentive design, disease surveillance, and emergency preparedness, including for bio-terrorism and pandemic disease.

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Association for Prevention Teaching and Research

Liaison: Michael P. Eriksen, ScD
Michael P. Eriksen is a professor at Georgia State University where he is also director of a CEPH-accredited master of public health degree program with 12 faculty and more than 100 students. He has written publications and had administrative experience with tobacco control, and he has published research on the topics of health promotion and obesity.

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Association of Schools of Public Health

Liaison: Harrison C. Spencer, MD, MPH, DTM&H
Harrison C. Spencer is the first fulltime President and CEO of the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH). His prior positions include Dean of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Dean of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans.

During a career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Spencer served as an EIS Officer and at the field station in El Salvador. He founded and directed the CDC research station in Nairobi, Kenya for 5 years and then served as Senior Medical Officer at the Malaria Action Program of the World Health Organization in Geneva. He has also served as Chief of the Parasitic Diseases Branch at CDC.

Dr. Spencer is board certified in both internal and preventive medicine is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Preventive Medicine. He was elected a Founding Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998 and to the US Institute of Medicine in 2003. His areas of expertise include public health, global health, preparedness and epidemiology.

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Association of State and Territorial Health Officials

Liaison: Julia Pekarsky Schneider, MPH
Julia Pekarsky Schneider is senior analyst for tobacco and chronic disease policy at ASTHO. Ms. Schneider’s work encompasses the areas of tobacco prevention and control, cancer, heart disease, and stroke. She works with ASTHO members and several partner organizations and affiliates on state and federal policies and programs in these areas. She also served as the analyst for primary care at ASTHO, working on projects related to community health centers and access to care.

Alternate Liaison: Beth Topf, MPPA
Beth Topf is a policy analyst for chronic disease prevention at ASTHO. In this position, she writes publications; provides technical assistance to, and surveys, state health departments; analyzes policies; and convenes national and state stakeholders. Ms. Topf has a master’s in public policy and administration and her areas of expertise and professional interest include obesity, smart growth/built environment, chronic disease prevention, minority health, and aging. Before coming to ASTHO, she worked for the California Healthy Cities and Communities program and she supports efforts to approach health holistically and incorporate factors that go beyond the realm of public health.

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Center for the Advancement of Health

Liaison: Jessie Gruman, PhD
Jessie Gruman is the founder and president of CFAH. She also is a professorial lecturer in the School of Public Health at The George Washington University and a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Gruman has published numerous articles and essays as well as a book for the general public, After Shock: What to Do When the Doctor Gives You – or Someone You Love – a Devastating Diagnosis (2007), which is about how people use scientific information to make decisions about their health care. She has a doctorate in social psychology and has worked in the private, public, and voluntary health sectors. Her areas of interest include advocacy for health research and decision making around health care.

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Directors of Health Promotion and Education

Liaison: Heidi L. Keller
A member of DPHE, Heidi L. Keller is director of the Office of Health Promotion, Washington State Department of Health. In this role, she oversees health promotion and health education projects, campaigns, and community grants. She also administers the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant, disseminates health promotion resources through an online clearinghouse, and serves as a consultant and advisor on health promotion practice and evidence-based strategies. Ms. Keller serves as an advisor to two Prevention Research Centers and her areas of expertise include social marketing and health communications, coalition development and community organizing, and health message design.

Alternate Liaison: Mary Bobbitt-Cooke, MPH
Mary Bobbitt-Cooke is secretary on the Board of Directors of Health Promotion and Education (DHPE). In her position as director of the Office of Healthy Carolinians/Health Education in the Division of Public Health, NC DHHS, she manages North Carolina’s Healthy People 2010 health objectives, serves on the executive staff to the Governor’s Task Force for Healthy Carolinians, and manages Healthy Carolinians Partnerships. She is also the lead health educator in North Carolina, supporting health education at the state and in the 86 local health departments, and she administers the community health assessment practice in all 100 counties. Additionally, she is a member of the Science Advisory Committee of the UNC Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Center (prevention research center). Her areas of expertise include community mobilization and development, community health assessment, program planning, policy and environmental interventions, and evaluation.

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Institute of Medicine

Alternate Liaison: Kathleen Stratton, PhD
Kathleen Stratton is a scholar at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. She has had primary editorial responsibility for reports in the areas of immunization safety, tobacco use prevention, and public health preparedness. In October 2002 she was awarded the IOM’s Cecil Research Award for her sustained contributions to vaccine safety. She has a doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology and joined the IOM after completing post-doctoral fellowships in neuroscience.

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National Association of County and City Health Officials

Liaison: Kim E. Barnhill, MS
Kim E. Barnhill is the administrator of the Jefferson and Madison County Health Departments. In this role, she has focused on increasing access to dental care; linking Smart Growth principles to public health initiatives; enhancing health care career opportunities for local high school students; and increasing the availability of indoor and outdoor physical activity facilities. Ms. Barnhill serves on the Board of Directors for NACCHO and chairs the NACCHO Injury Prevention workgroup. She has a master’s degree in adult education and gerontology and she is currently pursuing a master of public health.

Alternate Liaison: Cindy Phillips, MSW, MPH
Cindy Phillips is the senior advisor for community health for NACCHO. As such, she is responsible for integration of community health activities, programs and policies both internally and externally to NACCHO. She also performs the oversight and coordination functions related to NACCHO's community health related projects such as maternal and child health, immunizations, primary care, injury prevention, infectious disease, chronic disease, and tobacco prevention. Ms. Phillips has professional background as a social worker. She attained her masters of social work in human services management and her masters of public health in maternal and child health.

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National Association of Local Boards of Health

Liaison: J. Frederick Agel
J. Frederick Agel has been volunteering for public health for the past 35 years. He was one of the founding members of NALBOH and has served as the organization's Liaison since the inception of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Mr. Agel served on the DeKalb County Board of Health in Atlanta, Georgia for almost 30 years and acted as Chair for more than 23 of those years. He is the immediate past president of the Georgia Public Health Association, and he currently chairs the DeKalb County Council on Literacy. In addition to public health generally, Mr. Agel’s professional expertise includes mental health, mental retardation, and substance abuse disabilities.

Alternate Liaison: Marie M. Fallon, M.H.S.A.
Marie M. Fallon is the executive director for NALBOH. In this role, she provides leadership and day-to-day management for the association. Her professional experience and interests include citizen engagement, volunteer leadership, governance, and leadership.

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Public Health Foundation

Liaison: Ron Bialek, M.P.P.
Ron Bialek is president and CEO of the Public Health Foundation. Under his leadership over the past 10 years, PHF has focused its efforts on developing and implementing innovative strategies for improving performance of public health agencies and systems.

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