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Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop (2018)

Chapter: Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
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Appendix B

Speaker Biographical Sketches

Ashley M. Browning, M.A., is an educational planner in the Office of Continuing Medical Education of East Tennessee State University’s Quillen College of Medicine. She is a native of Belfry, Kentucky, and currently resides in Johnson City, Tennessee, after joining the university in November 2014. Ms. Browning has also held an adjunct faculty appointment in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at East Tennessee State University since 2010. Since 2015, Ms. Browning has been a member of the Board of Directors for the Appalachian Community Fund and has been secretary for the board since February 2017. She also serves on the Patient Advisory Council for Mountain States Health Alliance, where she encourages positive hospital patient experience through effective provider-to-patient communication, and is a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions, and the Gay Alliance SafeZone program at East Tennessee State University. Ms. Browning’s research interests include the role of social strain in Central Appalachia; the prevention, succession, and treatment of prescription drug abuse; and gaps between socioeconomic status and social goal attainment. Ms. Browning earned a B.S. in Correctional and Juvenile Justice Studies from Eastern Kentucky University in 2008 and an M.A. in Sociology from East Tennessee State University in 2011.

Bill Bynum is the Chief Executive Officer of HOPE (Hope Enterprise Corporation, Hope Credit Union, and Hope Policy Institute), a family of organizations that provides affordable financial services; leverages pri-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

vate, public, and philanthropic resources; and engages in policy analysis to fulfill its mission of strengthening communities, building assets, and improving lives in economically distressed parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Since 1994, HOPE has generated more than $2 billion in financing that has benefited more than 1 million people in one of the nation’s most impoverished regions. Mr. Bynum began his career by helping to establish Self-Help, a pioneer in the development finance industry, and later built nationally recognized programs at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. He is a member of the US Partnership for Mobility from Poverty, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and serves on the boards of the Aspen Institute, Corporation for Enterprise Development, Fannie Mae Affordable Housing Advisory Council, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. Mr. Bynum previously chaired the Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Advisory Board (as a presidential appointee), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Consumer Advisory Board. A recipient of the University of North Carolina Distinguished Alumnus Award, his honors include the Aspen Global Leadership Network John P. McNulty Prize, Credit Union National Association Herb Wegner Award, Opportunity Finance Network Ned Gramlich Award, National Rural Assembly Rural Hero Award, National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions Annie Vamper Award, and Ernst & Young/Kauffman Foundation National Entrepreneur of the Year.

Ned Calonge, M.D., M.P.H., is the President and CEO of The Colorado Trust, a private grant-making foundation dedicated to achieving health equity for all Coloradans. Dr. Calonge is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Colorado School of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, and an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health. Nationally, he chairs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Evaluating Genomic Applications for Practice and Prevention Working Group and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Electronic Data Methods Forum Advisory Committee, and he is a member of CDC’s Task Force on Community Preventive Services and CDC’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Control Advisory Committee. Dr. Calonge serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice and on the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity. He is a past Chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and is a past member of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children. Prior to coming to The Trust, Dr. Calonge was the Chief Medical Officer of the Colorado Department of Public Health

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

and Environment. Dr. Calonge received his B.A. in Chemistry from The Colorado College, his M.D. from the University of Colorado, and his M.P.H. from the University of Washington, where he also completed his preventive medicine residency. He completed his family medicine residency at the Oregon Health & Science University. He is a National Academy of Medicine member (elected in 2011).

George Isham, M.D., M.S., is a Senior Advisor to HealthPartners, responsible for working with the board of directors and the senior management team on health and quality of care improvement for patients, members, and the community. Dr. Isham is also a Senior Fellow, HealthPartners Research Foundation, and facilitates forward progress at the intersection of population health research and public policy. Dr. Isham is active nationally and currently co-chairs the National Quality Forum–convened Measurement Application Partnership, chairs the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA’s) clinical program committee, and is a member of NCQA’s committee on performance measurement. He is a former member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Community Preventive Services Task Force and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and he currently serves on the advisory committee to the director of CDC. His practice experience as a general internist was with the U.S. Navy; at the Freeport Clinic in Freeport, Illinois; and as a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics in Madison, Wisconsin. In 2014 Dr. Isham was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Isham is chair of the Health and Medicine Division’s (HMD’s) Roundtable on Health Literacy and has chaired three studies in addition to serving on a number of HMD studies related to health and quality of care. In 2003 Dr. Isham was appointed as a lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his contributions to the work of HMD.

Dennis G. Johnson, M.S., is the Executive Vice President for Government Affairs at the Children’s Health Fund, a nonprofit organization that initiates and supports innovative pediatric programs designed to meet the complex health care needs of medically underserved, homeless, and economically disadvantaged children. Mr. Johnson is also the Policy Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, where he acts as a liaison between the Center and policy makers and elected officials at the state and federal levels. Mr. Johnson directs the Fund’s public policy, government affairs, and advocacy agendas and coordinates the Fund’s relationship with a broad spectrum of public officials, public- and private-sector entities, advocacy groups, and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

health provider organizations. Prior to his current position, Mr. Johnson was the Vice President of External Affairs and Senior Director, Policy and Planning. Before that, he served as the interim director of the Fund’s national network of mobile-based pediatric programs. Prior to his tenure at The Children’s Health Fund, Mr. Johnson was a senior program officer at the Fund for New York City Public Education and a research analyst at the Public Policy Institute of the Business Council of New York State. Mr. Johnson received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his master’s degree in Political Management from the Graduate School of Political Management at Baruch College.

Brian Lewandowski, M.B.A., is a Research Associate Director at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder and the Associate Director for the Business Research Division of CU’s Leeds School of Business. He has been with the school since 2006, working on economic forecasts, econometric models, and market research and real estate studies. Mr. Lewandowski has a background in banking, international development, mining, and tourism, and worked for Fortune 500 companies, as well as with the U.S. Peace Corps. During his time at Leeds, Mr. Lewandowski has studied various subjects, including employment, industry composition, small business financing, exports, workforce, affordable housing, commercial real estate, film, government incentives, tourism, forecasting methodologies, nanotechnology, and others. He received his M.B.A. from the Leeds School of Business.

Denisa Livingston is a tribal member of the Navajo Nation. She is currently one of ten 2016–2017 Empowered-to-Serve National Ambassadors for the American Heart Association. She is committed to addressing the diabetes epidemic, the dominant culture of unhealthy foods, and the lack of healthy food access in the Navajo Nation. Ms. Livingston is a community health advocate for the Diné Community Advocacy Alliance (DCAA). DCAA has been globally recognized for the successful passage of several laws, the first of its kind in a food desert: Elimination of Tax on Healthy Foods, the Healthy Diné Nation Act of 2014 for Unhealthy Foods Tax, and a tax revenue allocation for Community Wellness Projects. From the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Ms. Livingston received a bachelor’s degree and a Master of Public Health degree. She is an alumna of Leadership San Juan and Leadership New Mexico Connect programs. She was a W.K. Kellogg Foundation nominee and a Slow Food International delegate of the International Indigenous Terra Madre event in Northeast India and Salone del Gusto Terra Madre in Italy. She is a member of the Slow Food Turtle Island Association, National Young Farmers Coalition, a national Sugar Action Group, and an advisory member of Reclaiming

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

Native Truth: A Project to Dispel America’s Myths and Misconceptions. She was featured in The Washington Post live event—America Answers: Changing the Menu, Gourmet News Magazine, TV Tokyo, Mother Jones, Civil Eats, Al-Jazeera America, NPR, and others.

Felecia Lucky, M.B.A., is the Executive Director of the Black Belt Community Foundation in Selma, Alabama. The Black Belt Community Foundation was established to support community efforts that contribute to the strength, innovation, and success in Alabama’s 12 poorest counties—the Black Belt. As Executive Director of the Foundation, Ms. Lucky values regular input from the communities and works diligently to strengthen the communities in environmental issues, health and human services, education, youth, arts and culture, and economic and community development in an effort to transform Alabama’s Black Belt. Prior to serving as Executive Director of the Foundation, Ms. Lucky worked as an Internal Auditor in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and as an Accounting Supervisor in Memphis, Tennessee, for Cargill, Inc. Ms. Lucky then returned home to Alabama to serve as Executive Director of the Sumter County Industrial Development Authority. This position provided a tremendous opportunity for Ms. Lucky to effect positive change in her home county. With a sincere desire to improve the quality of life for Sumter County citizens, Ms. Lucky worked with Auburn University to spearhead Sumter County’s first leadership development program (which graduated its first class in 1999). Ms. Lucky is very active in community development, serving on a variety of committees and boards, including Governor Bob Riley’s newly appointed Black Belt Action Commission, the Southern Rural Development Initiative, Alabama Giving, and the Greene-Sumter Enterprise Community, Inc. Ms. Lucky earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Tuskegee University. She also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Alabama.

Sanne Magnan, M.D., Ph.D., is the co-chair of the Roundtable on Population Health Improvement. Dr. Magnan served as the President and CEO of the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI) until January 4, 2016. Dr. Magnan was previously the president of ICSI when she was appointed by former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty to serve as Commissioner of Health for the Minnesota Department of Health. She served in that position from 2007 to 2010 and had significant responsibility for implementation of Minnesota’s 2008 health reform legislation, including the Statewide Health Improvement Program, standardized quality reporting, development of provider peer grouping, a certification process for health care homes, and baskets of care. She returned as ICSI’s President and CEO in 2011. Dr. Magnan also currently serves as a staff physician at

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

the Tuberculosis Clinic at St. Paul–Ramsey County Department of Public Health and as a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota. Her previous experience includes serving as vice president and medical director of Consumer Health at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, where she was responsible for case management, disease management, and consumer engagement. Dr. Magnan holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Minnesota and is a board-certified internist. She earned her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of North Carolina. She has served on the board of MN Community Measurement, and the board of NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center, a federally qualified health center and part of Hennepin Health. She was named one of the 100 Influential Health Care Leaders by Minnesota Physician magazine in 2004, 2008, and 2012. Since 2012, she has participated in the Process Redesign Advisory Group for the National Center for Inter-professional Practice and Education coordinated through the University of Minnesota. Recently, she became a Senior Fellow, HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research. She is participating in several Technical Expert Panels for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on population health measures (2015–2016), and is a member of the Population-based Payment Workgroup of the Healthcare Payment Learning and Action Network (2015–2016). She is also on the Interdisciplinary Application/Translation Committee of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Sciences.

Octavio N. Martinez, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., is the fifth executive director and the first Hispanic to lead the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health since its creation in 1940. The foundation is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Martinez holds an appointment of Associate Vice-President within the division. He is also a clinical professor with an appointment in the university’s School of Social Work and holds an adjunct professor appointment at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry. He currently serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Health and Medicine Division’s (HMD’s) Standing Committee on Medical and Public Health Research during Large-Scale Emergency Events and on HMD’s Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity. He has formerly served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Governance and Financing of Graduate Medical Education (2014) and on the Committee on the Mental Health Workforce for Geriatric Populations (2012). From 2002 to 2006, he served as a Special Emphasis Panel Member for the National Institutes of Health, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Dr. Martinez also serves on the National Advisory

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

Committee on Rural Health and Human Services. He is the board chair of the National Hispanic Council on Aging, board chair for the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, and committee chair for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission—Behavioral Health Integration Advisory Committee. He is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of the American College of Psychiatrists, a member of the American College of Mental Health Administration, the National Hispanic Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the Texas Society for Psychiatric Physicians, and The Philosophical Society of Texas. He has a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health, a doctor’s degree in medicine from Baylor College of Medicine, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration with a concentration in finance from The University of Texas at Austin. He was Chief Resident during his psychiatric training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and is an alumnus of The Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at Harvard Medical School.

Michael Meit, M.A., M.P.H., serves as co-director of the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis and as a Senior Fellow in NORC’s Public Health Research Department. Mr. Meit currently leads program evaluation and research studies focused on rural and tribal health programs, the national public health agency accreditation program, and health workforce diversity programs. He is conducting formative research for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore community assets to improve health and equity in rural communities, and recently completed a body of research exploring the impacts of health reform on state and local health departments. Mr. Meit has experience working at both the state and national levels, first with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and then with the National Association of County & City Health Officials. He served as founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Rural Health Practice, and recently finished a term on the Board of Directors of the National Rural Health Association. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Rural Health Association and on the American Public Health Association’s Committee for Health Equity.

Bobby Milstein, Ph.D., M.P.H., is the director of ReThink Health for the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation and a visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. With an educational background that combines cultural anthropology, behavioral science, and systems science, Dr. Milstein concentrates on challenges that involve large-scale institutional change and the need to align mul-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

tiple lines of action. He led the development of the ReThink Health Dynamics model and a suite of regionally configured simulations that are used by leaders across the country to explore the likely health and economic consequences of policy scenarios. From 1991 to 2011, Dr. Milstein worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he founded the Syndemics Prevention Network, chaired the agency’s Behavioral and Social Science Working Group, and was coordinator for a wide range of new initiatives. He was the principal architect of CDC’s framework for program evaluation and published a monograph titled Hygeia’s Constellation: Navigating Health Futures in a Dynamic and Democratic World, recommended by the CDC director as “required reading for all health professionals.” Dr. Milstein has led several award-winning teams that bring greater structure, evidence, and creativity to the challenge of health system change. He is a co-founder (with Patty Mabry) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institute on Systems Science and Health, and a co-developer of several other widely used health policy simulation models, including HealthBound and the Prevention Impacts Simulation Model. He has received CDC’s Honor Award for Excellence in Innovation, the Applied Systems Thinking Prize from ASysT Institute, and Article of the Year awards from AcademyHealth and the Society for Public Health Education. Dr. Milstein holds a B.A. in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan, an M.P.H. from Emory University, and a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary arts and sciences with a specialization in public health science from Union Institute & University.

Tom Morris, M.P.A., serves as the Associate Administrator for the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In that role, Mr. Morris oversees the work of the Office of Rural Health Policy, which is charged with advising the Secretary on rural health issues. The Office, which has an annual budget of $147 million, administers a range of research and capacity-building grant programs that serve rural communities. Mr. Morris also serves as the HHS representative on the White House Rural Council. In 2012, Mr. Morris was the recipient of the HHS Distinguished Service Award, and in 2015 he was awarded a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service. Over the course of his federal career, Mr. Morris has testified on rural health issues before the House and Senate. He has past work experience in the U.S. Senate and held various policy and program positions within HRSA and HHS. A 1996 Presidential Management Intern, Mr. Morris came to government after a career as a newspaper reporter and editor. He has an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s in Public Administration with a concentration

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

in Community Health from East Carolina University. He also earned a Certificate in Public Leadership from the Brookings Institution in 2008.

Dale E. Quinney, M.P.H., is the Executive Director of the Alabama Rural Health Association. Mr. Quinney has a diverse history of working on projects as a health data specialist. He recently completed work in directing the development of a comprehensive statewide health assessment for the Alabama Department of Public Health. Prior to this role, he served as the Director of Statistical Analysis with the Alabama Center for Health Statistics from 1986 until 2000. Other past employment includes diverse data-related activity involving mental health, occupational employment, and unemployment going back to 1973. After entering employment with the Alabama Rural Health Association, Mr. Quinney visited every health-related facility, from hospitals to assisted living facilities, in 51 rural Alabama counties to learn more about local health care status and needs. Mr. Quinney was presented the Ira Myers Award by the Alabama Public Health Association in 1999. This is the most outstanding public health award in the state and is presented to those making a significant impact on public health in Alabama. He was again recognized by this association as a recipient of the D. G. Gill, M.D. Award in 2012. This award recognizes individuals for providing special technical assistance that positively impacts public health in Alabama. Mr. Quinney received his B.S. degree in business law from the University of Alabama in 1972 and a second B.S. degree in economics from that university in 1973. He received the Master of Public Health degree specializing in biometry from the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 1992.

Margarita Romo is the founder and Executive Director of Farmworkers Self-Help (FSH), a grassroots organization organized by farmworkers and former farmworkers in 1982 in Dade City, Pasco County, Florida. She organized AWING (Agricultural Women Involved in New Goals), and developed the Norma Godinez Arts and Education Center, as well as the Mi Otra Casa (My Other House) FSH community teen center. Through Ms. Romo’s vision and efforts working alongside families of the communities that she and FSH serve, La Casa de Esperanza y Salud (House of Hope and Health), a free health clinic for farmworkers, has been in operation at FSH in Dade City since 1994. She is a recipient of the Robert Bannerman Award, the Clairol Award, and the Cramer-Fisher Award given by MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger. Ms. Romo is a past member of the Florida Education and Employment Council for Women and Girls, Pasco County Juvenile Justice Council, Pasco Arts Council, Girls Initiative of Pasco County, Pasco County Sheriff’s Council, and Youth as Resources, Pasco County, and was appointed by the Governor

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

of Florida and served for 8 years as a member of the Health and Human Services Board of Children and Family Services. Ms. Romo has worked with legislators throughout the years and during legislative sessions to effect passage of laws to improve the quality of lives of farmworkers and other poor. She has assisted in coordinating learning activities for visiting groups of teachers from poor areas of El Salvador, Peru, and Honduras. In 2013 she was selected by Florida Governor Rick Scott to be the first Mexican American woman inducted into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame. In 2014, she was honored as a Public Health Hero by the Florida Department of Health. In April 2015 Ms. Romo was awarded the 2015 Sapphire Award in the Individual Category from the Blue Foundation of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. Also in April 2015, Ms. Romo received the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at St. Leo University in San Antonio, Florida. In November 2015 Ms. Romo received the Lightning Community Hero Award from the Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation. She continues to travel to the state capitol in Tallahassee and to Congress and other venues across Florida and the country and works tirelessly against poverty and prejudice.

Dolores E. Roybal, Ph.D., M.S.W., is the executive director of Con Alma Health Foundation, the largest foundation in New Mexico dedicated solely to health. Con Alma’s mission is to be aware of and address the health rights and needs of the culturally and demographically diverse peoples and communities of New Mexico with a focus on rural, tribal, and communities of color. A health equity foundation, Con Alma was recently awarded the Public Health Advocate Award for “an organization that has made a positive health-related change in their community” from the New Mexico Public Health Association. A native New Mexican, Dr. Roybal has more than 35 years of experience in nonprofit and philanthropy work. She currently serves as a board member of the Border Philanthropy Partnership, a binational organization, and as a former board member and chair of the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers, Grantmakers In Health, and Hispanics in Philanthropy. Prior positions include program director at the Santa Fe Community Foundation, founding executive director of NGO NM, a statewide nonprofit association, and executive director of Women’s Health Services. She also directed Graduate and External Programs at the College of Santa Fe, and served as the graduate Social Work coordinator at New Mexico Highlands University. She has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses for many years. She has a master’s in social work and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior and development with a focus on nonprofit management, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

Samantha J. Sabo, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor of Public Health with the Northern Arizona University, Center for Health Equity Research, and affiliate faculty with the Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona. Her work examines the role and impact of community health worker (CHW) interventions and advocacy on chronic disease and maternal and child health disparities in diverse communities, including Latino, immigrant, migrant, and agricultural worker populations of the U.S.–Mexico border and northern Mexico. She has recently begun to partner with indigenous citizens, including traditional healers of the U.S. Southwest, to advance health equity. She prioritizes innovation in research, advocacy, and policy through community-based and participatory action research methods such as CHWs as researchers, mixed use of qualitative and quantitative methods, critical race and decolonizing research methodologies that include collaborative analysis, use of oral history, digital storytelling, and Photo Voice. Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. Sabo served as a Fellow to the U.S.–México Border Health Commission and later the Director for Transborder Initiatives (2007–2014), where she cultivated academic and institutional partnerships to facilitate applied public health research and public health workforce development in the U.S.–Mexico border region, including Mexico. In 2013, she co-founded a statewide coalition of more than 150 agencies to advance the CHW workforce and facilitate stakeholder engagement to shape research, training, and policy agendas and has scaled this work to co-found a large-scale effort to engage Arizona’s 22 Tribal CHW programs in workforce development and policy efforts. She has been recognized for her commitment to community engagement, advocacy for social justice, and excellence in migration research. She currently serves as the Multiple Principal Investigator of a National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute R01 implementation science initiative to improve chronic disease outcomes among Mexican nationals living at the U.S.–Mexico border.

Sharita Thomas, M.P.P., received her Master’s of Public Policy, with a focus in Health Policy, from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. She is a research associate with the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. Her professional health policy experience is rooted in past work as a legislative or research assistant with the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and the North Carolina General Assembly. Her focus with the NC Rural Health Research Program is managing rural health projects, especially work with hospital closures. Her other rural health project interests include social determinants, maternal–child health, qualitative research, and health inequities.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×

Antonia M. Villarruel, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, is the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and Director of the School’s World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership. As a bilingual and bicultural nurse researcher, Dr. Villarruel has extensive research and practice experience with diverse Latino and Mexican populations and communities, and health promotion and health disparities research and practice. She incorporates a community-based participatory approach to her research. Specifically, her research focuses on the development and testing of interventions to reduce sexual risk behaviors among Mexican and Latino youth. She has been the principal investigator and co-principal investigator of more than eight randomized clinical trials concerned with reducing sexual and other risk behaviors. As part of this program of research, she developed an efficacious program to reduce sexual risk behavior among Latino youth titled Cuídate! The program is disseminated nationally by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of their Diffusion of Evidence-Based Interventions program and the Office of Adolescent Health. In addition to her research, Dr. Villarruel has assumed leadership in many national and local organizations. She is the past President and founding member of the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nursing Associations and past President of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. She has served as a member of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)/CDC HIV/STD Advisory Council, the HRSA National Advisory Council for Nursing Education and Practice, Health and Medicine Division Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, and also as a charter member of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She is a member of the Strategic Advisory Council of the AARP/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy Future of Nursing Campaign for Action and co-chairs the Diversity Steering Committee. She is also the chair of the Health and Medicine Division Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity. She has received numerous honors and awards, including membership in the National Academy of Medicine and selection as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×
Page 75
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
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Page 79
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Speaker Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/24967.
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Page 80
Achieving Rural Health Equity and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop Get This Book
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Rural counties make up about 80 percent of the land area of the United States, but they contain less than 20 percent of the U.S. population. The relative sparseness of the population in rural areas is one of many factors that influence the health and well-being of rural Americans. Rural areas have histories, economies, and cultures that differ from those of cities and from one rural area to another. Understanding these differences is critical to taking steps to improve health and well-being in rural areas and to reduce health disparities among rural populations. To explore the impacts of economic, demographic, and social issues in rural communities and to learn about asset-based approaches to addressing the associated challenges, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop on June 13, 2017. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

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