APPENDIX D
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Carl C. Bell, MD, is Staff Psychiatrist at Jackson Park Hospital’s Outpatient Family Practice Clinic and Inpatient Consultation Liaison Service. He is the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Windsor University, St. Kitts. In addition, he is a Professor Emeritus, Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and Retired Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. During 50 years, he has published more than 575 articles, chapters, and books on mental health and authored The Sanity of Survival. He is coeditor of Family and HIV/AIDS: Cultural and Contextual Issues in Prevention and Treatment and Psychiatric Clinics of North America—Prevention in Psychiatry. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Action Alliance for the Prevention of Suicide. In 2012, he was presented the Special Presidential Commendation of the American Psychiatric Association in recognition of his outstanding advocacy for mental illness prevention and for person-centered mental health wellness and recovery, and the 2012 Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Prevention in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In 2014, he was presented the American Psychiatric Association’s Distinguished Service Award and the Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association of Social Psychiatry.
Patrick H. DeLeon, PhD, MPH, JD, is a Distinguished Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing (GSN) and the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine. As a Distinguished Professor for the Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing, Dr. DeLeon leads the Public Policy Forum, where numerous distinguished visitors and delegates are invited to speak. A few of his career highlights include working for the Peace Corps, and as a Public Health intern for Senator Daniel K. Inouye. Remarkably, Dr. DeLeon’s internship turned into a 38-year term of public service in support of strengthening access to care and health policies for the Hawaiian culture, and retiring as Chief of Staff to Senator Inouye in 2011.
Preeminently, Dr. DeLeon was instrumental in standing up the GSN, and he is considered one of its founding fathers. Dr. DeLeon has been awarded three honorary degrees: honorary doctor of psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, Fresno; honorary doctor of psychology from the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology; and an honorary doctor of humane letters from NOVA Southeastern University. He is currently the editor of Psychological Services. He has over 200 publications. He is married with one son, a daughter, one grandson, and one granddaughter. In his spare time, he enjoys writing and playing golf.
Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, is the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor in Adolescent Health and Professor of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine. After earning her medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, she completed her postdoctoral training at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and subsequently received a master’s in public health from Harvard University and PhD in epidemiology from Columbia University. Dr. Diaz is the Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, a unique program that provides high quality, comprehensive, integrated, interdisciplinary primary care, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, dental and health education services to teens—all for free to those without insurance. The Center has an emphasis on wellness and prevention. Under her leadership, the Center has become the largest, adolescent-specific health center in the United States, serving each year more than 10,000 vulnerable and disadvantaged youth, including those who are uninsured and lack access to health services. This program addresses health disparity and aims for health equity.
Karen Dill-Shackleford, PhD, earned her PhD in social psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her dissertation on media violence has been cited 1,500 times. She testified twice before Congress about media use and everyday realities. Karen studies the way people seek and construct social meaning from media including fictional stories, especially in the context of fandom. She demonstrates how media can be used to enhance social justice, particularly related to issues involving race and gender. She also studies the benefits of using media to support a meditation practice to enhance psychological well-being. Karen is the author of How Fantasy Becomes Reality, and the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology. She is coauthor of Mad Men Unzipped: Fans on Sex, Love, and the Sixties on TV (University of Iowa Press, 2015); and Finding Truth in Fiction: The Benefits of Getting Lost in a Story (Oxford University Press, 2015).
Lawrence M. Drake II, PhD, MA, MPA, currently serves and President and Chief Executive Officer of the Leadership, Education, and Development (LEAD) Program and is responsible for the overall operational and strategic leadership of the organization. Dr. Drake serves as chairman of Hope 360°, an executive management advisory firm. He is a certified consultant for Personnel Decisions International, an investment adviser for AJIA Capital Holdings, and is a senior partner at Saurus Partners LLC. He retired from The Coca-Cola Company where he was managing director, President/CEO of the $1B West Africa division of Coca-Cola Africa. Previously, he served in senior-level positions with Executive Leadership Council, PepsiCo, Cablevision Systems Corp., and Kraft Inc. He has helped bring several start-ups/midstage entrepreneurial companies to market, including Haven Media Group and Dolman Technologies. He serves or has served on the boards and executive committees of the National Conference for Community and Justice, the California Science Center, Crystal Stairs Inc., Jarvis Christian College, the Executive Leadership Council, Vine & Oak Foundation North America, and Nehemiah Project Ministries International. He received a BA in sociology from Georgia State University and an MBA from Rockhurst University, where he was an executive fellow. Mr. Drake completed both his MA and PhD in psychology at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California.
Vivian L. Gadsden, EdD, is the William T. Carter Professor of Child Development, Professor of Education, and Director of the National Center on Fathers and Families at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also on the faculties of Africana Studies and of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Penn. Gadsden is President of the American Educational Research Association. Gadsden’s research and scholarly interests focus on children and families across the life course who are at the greatest risk for academic and social vulnerability by virtue of race, gender, ethnicity, poverty, and immigrant status. Her current projects examine young children’s learning and well-being; parenting and family engagement, including father involvement; health and educational disparities within low-income communities; and incarceration and its effects on children and families. She serves on the Board of the Foundation for Child Development and on a range of national and local research initiatives. Most recently, she served as chair of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Supporting Parents of Young Children. Gadsden is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. She earned her doctorate in education and developmental psychology from the University of Michigan.
Helene D. Gayle is president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust. Before assuming leadership of the Trust in October 2017, Dr. Gayle was CEO of McKinsey Social Initiative, a nonprofit that brings together varied stakeholders to address complex global social challenges. From 2006 to 2015, she was president and CEO of CARE USA, a leading international humanitarian organization. An expert on global development, humanitarian and health issues, Dr. Gayle spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. She also worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, directing programs on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues. Dr. Gayle serves on public company and nonprofit boards including the Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive Company, the Rockefeller Foundation, Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, New America, and the ONE Campaign. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Public Health Association, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Named one of Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women,” she has authored numerous articles on global and domestic public health issues, poverty alleviation, gender equality and social justice. Dr. Gayle was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. She earned a BA in psychology at Barnard College, an M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPH at Johns Hopkins University. She has received 13 honorary degrees and holds faculty appointments at the University of Washington and Emory University.
Walter S. Gilliam, PhD, is the Director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy and associate professor of child psychiatry and psychology at the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine. He is on the board of directors for the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), a fellow at Zero to Three and the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), and served as a senior advisor to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Dr. Gilliam is corecipient of the 2008 Grawemeyer Award in Education for the coauthored book, A Vision for Universal Preschool Education. Dr. Gilliam’s research involves early childhood education and intervention policy analysis (specifically how policies translate into effective services), ways to improve the quality of prekindergarten and childcare services, the impact of early childhood education programs on children’s school readiness, and effective methods for reducing classroom behavior problems and reducing the incidence of preschool expulsion. His scholarly writing addresses early childhood care and education programs, school readiness, and developmental assessment of young children. Dr. Gilliam actively provides consultation to state and federal decision makers.
His work has been covered in major national and international news outlets for print (e.g., New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, etc.), radio (e.g., National Public Radio), and television (e.g., NBC Today Show, CBS The Early Show, ABC World News, CNN, FOX, etc.).
Coti-Lynne Puamana Haia, JD, currently serves as the Bureau Chief for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ Washington, D.C. Bureau. Born and raised on Oʻahu, Ms. Haia graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Upon graduating, Ms. Haia returned to Hawaiʻi to attend law school at the William S. Richardson School of Law. Ms. Haia worked briefly as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu before moving to Washington, D.C. to serve as a fellow in the office of U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye. She later moved to the office of U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono, eventually serving as Senator Hirono’s Chief Counsel. She joined the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in 2016 and very much appreciates the opportunity to continue working for the State of Hawai’i and for the Native Hawaiian community.
Jeff Hutchinson, MD, FAAP, is a Colonel in the U.S. Army who has served since 1985 and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the United States Military Academy. He received a medical degree from the University of California San Francisco and completed a residency in pediatrics at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. He has served military families from Landstuhl, Germany, to Hawai’i and has cared for troops in task forces and other units. His specialty in adolescent medicine has allowed him to be an advocate of education and young adult health with publications in the Journal of Pediatrics, the Journal of Military Medicine, and the Journal of Adolescent Health. Currently, he is the Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer for the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine—“America’s Medical School” Uniformed Services University. He serves on the National Academy of Medicine Board on Children Youth and Families and his research and national presentations focus on Media, Military Families, Education, Bias, and Sports Medicine.
Joseph Keawe‘aimoku Kaholokula, PhD, is an associate professor and Chair of Native Hawaiian Health in the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He is also a licensed clinical psychologist with a specialty in behavioral medicine. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 2003 and completed a clinical health psychology postdoctoral fellowship in 2004 at the Triple Army Medical Center.
He has provided clinical services at various community health systems on O‘ahu and Maui in helping people to quit smoking, lose excess body weight, manage their hypertension and diabetes, and manage psychological factors that get in the way of people living healthy lives. He also provides training to other health care providers and community health advocates on topics relevant to culturally competent behavioral health services, motivational interviewing, behavioral strategies to health promotion, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander health. He is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded researcher who examines how biological, behavioral, and social factors interplay to affect a person’s risk for chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, especially in Asians, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Peoples. His research also involves developing sustainable, community-based health promotion programs to address obesity, diabetes, and heart disease disparities in Hawai‘i for people of all ages.
Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos, PhD, MHA, serves as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. As senior program liaison for community health she serves as a senior representative of the Marine Corps on community health policy and research working groups at the interagency, Department of Defense, and Department of the Navy levels. As a recognized expert, she is tasked with making recommendations on complex issues requiring knowledge of administrative laws, policies, regulation, and precedent applicable to the administration of community health programs. Further, she monitors research to test new and best practices to improve the lives of marines, their families, and the communities in which they serve. Dr. Koehlmoos’s research areas of interest led to the development of health service delivery for the homeless in Dhaka; scaling up zinc for the treatment of childhood diarrhea; and improving immunization services to children in hard-to-reach areas; as well as translation of evidence to policy with the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and private sector organizations. She is an award-winning researcher and writer with more than 80 publications appearing in the Lancet, PLoS Medicine, the Cochrane Library, and Health Policy among others and a host of multimedia productions including television series and a documentary. A former Army Air Defense Artillery officer who earned the Army Commendation, Army Achievement, and Southwest Asia Service medals, Dr. Koehlmoos’s post-Army awards include the Family Support Group Leader Europe Award, the Army Civilian Achievement Medal, and the Honorable Order of Joan d’Arc. She is a graduate of the Joint Military Attaché School. She is the widow of Colonel Randall Koehlmoos, US Army, and mother of Robert (USMA 2016), Michael, and David Koehlmoos.
Richard M. Lerner, PhD, is the Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and the Director of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University. He went from kindergarten through PhD within the New York City public schools, completing his doctorate at the City University of New York in 1971 in developmental psychology. Lerner has more than 650 scholarly publications, including more than 75 authored or edited books. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and of Applied Developmental Science, which he continues to edit. Lerner is known for his theory of relations between life-span human development and social change, and for his research about the relations between adolescents and their peers, families, schools, and communities. As illustrated by his 2004 book, Liberty: Thriving and Civic Engagement among America’s Youth, and his 2007 book, The Good Teen: Rescuing Adolescence from the Myth of the Storm and Stress Years, his work integrates the study of public policies and community-based programs with the promotion of positive youth development and youth contributions to civil society.
Nancy López, PhD, is associate professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico (BA Columbia College, Columbia University, 1991; PhD Graduate School & University Center, City University of New York [GSUC-CUNY], 1999). Dr. López directs and cofounded the Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice, RWJF Center for Health Policy (race.unm.edu) and she is the founding coordinator of the New Mexico Statewide Race, Gender, Class Data Policy Consortium. Dr. López is also the inaugural cochair of the Diversity Council and serves on the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, UNM. Dr. López chairs the committee on the status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities and was past-chair of the Race, Gender, Class Section of the American Sociological Association. López’s scholarship, teaching, and service is guided by the insights of intersectionality—the importance of examining race, gender, class, ethnicity together—for interrogating inequalities across a variety of social outcomes, including education, health, employment, housing, and developing contextualized solutions that advance social justice. Dr. López has taught for over two decades in a variety of public universities (City University of New York, University of Massachusetts, and University of New Mexico) that serve a very diverse group of students, including those who, like Dr. López, were the first in their families to complete high school and pursue higher education.
Raquel Mack, is a fifth-year doctoral candidate working toward a dual-track PhD in medical and clinical psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Maryland. While at USUHS Raquel
has earned her MS in medical and clinical psychology, and completed a thesis on the effects of nicotine and stress on learning, memory, and information processing in an animal model. Raquel is currently working on her dissertation entitled “The effects of cultural competence and implicit bias on clinical decision making.” Raquel attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she earned a BS (2010) in psychology, and Lipscomb University where she earned an MS (2012) in psychology. After college, Raquel was a Research Project Coordinator at Meharry Medical College (2011–2013) under the supervision of epidemiologist Dr. Maureen Sanderson working on several research projects with underserved populations including a provider intervention for human papillomavirus; an investigation of possible causes of breast cancer in African American breast cancer survivors; and a study of the relationships among hormones, diet, body size, and breast density in healthy African American and Hispanic women. Raquel’s research interests include minority health disparities, implicit bias, and the effects of trauma on children in the juvenile justice system. Raquel’s clinical interests include children and adolescents, community mental health, and psychodiagnostic assessment.
Jim Marks, MD, MPH, executive vice president, oversees all program, communications, research, and policy activities in support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s vision to build a Culture of Health in America. Marks joined the Foundation in 2004 and was formerly the senior vice president and director of program portfolios. His areas of responsibility have included strengthening vulnerable families, healthy communities, transforming health and health care systems, achieving health equity, ensuring that all children grow up at a healthy weight, and New Jersey–focused programming.
Prior to joining RWJF, Marks served as assistant surgeon general and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Throughout his tenure at CDC, Marks developed and advanced systematic ways to prevent and detect diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes; reduce tobacco use; and address the nation’s growing obesity epidemic.
A national leader in public health for more than 35 years, Marks has received numerous federal, state, and private awards from organizations such as the American Cancer Society, National Arthritis Foundation, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, Association of State and Territorial Chronic Disease Directors, and U.S. Public Health Service. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in recognition of his accomplishments in epidemiology and public health. He has served on many governmental and nonprofit committees, including the Executive Board of
the American Public Health Association. He is emeritus board chair of C-Change, whose members are the nation’s key cancer leaders from government, business, and nonprofit sectors. He has published extensively in the areas of maternal and child health, health promotion, and chronic disease prevention.
Marks received an MD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He trained as a pediatrician at the University of California at San Francisco, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale University, where he received his MPH.
Shantel E. Meek, PhD, serves as a Policy Advisor for Early Childhood Development in the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In her role, Dr. Meek advises the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Development on a wide array of research areas and policy issues, including parent and community engagement, promoting healthy child development, and supporting young children with disabilities. Prior to her work at HHS, Dr. Meek served as a Clinical Interventionist for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families at the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center (SARRC). In this capacity, she worked one-on-one with children, performed educational consultation and inclusion support services, and trained parents and paraprofessionals on empirically supported techniques aimed at improving social, emotional, cognitive, motor, and self-help skills in young children with ASD. Dr. Meek’s research activities are focused on the healthy social-emotional and cognitive development of young children in poverty and young children with developmental disabilities. Dr. Meek’s work related to the social development of children with ASD has been published in peer-reviewed journals. She holds a BA in psychology and a PhD in family and human development from Arizona State University.
Noreen Mokuau, DSW, is Dean and Professor at the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. As a Native Hawaiian woman, she is committed to social work education that is anchored in excellence and founded in the unique attributes of Hawai‘i and the Pacific-Asia region. She is a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools, the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa (BA psychology; MSW social work) and the University of California, Los Angeles (DSW social welfare). She received the UH Regents Excellence in Teaching Award and the UH Community Service Award.
Presently, she is Coprincipal Investigator and Director of Hā Kūpuna: National Resource Center for Native Hawaiian Elders, and serves as a Commissioner on the Council on Social Work Education Commission for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice. Dr. Mokuau has edited three books, published numerous
journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports, and given many presentations on cultural competency and social services for Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans.
As a scholar, mentor, and teacher, Mokuau’s interests in cultural competency centers on social justice issues, including health disparities among Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Asian populations, and caregiving issues for culturally diverse elders. A strong advocate for community-based participatory research, her research is rooted in the ‘ohana and community. She acknowledges that her life work is based on the direction and guidance of her own ‘ohana, with special credit to the legacy of her parents.
Velma McBride Murry, PhD, is the Lois Autrey Betts Chair in Education and Human Development and Professor, Human and Organizational Development in Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. Her work has focused on the significance of context in studies of African American families and youth, particularly the impact of racism on family functioning. This research has elucidated the dynamics of this contextual stressor in the everyday life of African Americans and the ways family members buffer each other from the impact of the external stressors that cascade through African American lives. Professor McBride Murry served as principal investigator of The Strong African American Families Program, a universal RCT prevention trial designed to deter HIV-related risk behavior among rural African American youth residing in Georgia. Murry received continued support from NIMH to conduct a RCT in Tennessee to determine the efficacy and viability of a technology-driven, interactive, family-based preventive intervention, the Pathways for African American Success Program, as a delivery modality for rural families.
Ken Peake, DSW, is Chief Operating Officer and Assistant Director, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center (MSAHC) in New York City. Dr. Peake was MSAHC’s Director of Mental Health from 1990 until 2002 and is an assistant professor in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has his master’s degree in social work from Hunter College and his doctorate in social welfare from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Dr. Peake has numerous peer-reviewed publications and book chapters related to the well-being of inner-city adolescents and to reducing trauma in this population. He believes that to serve young people well we must develop smart organizations with a “reflective” organizational culture that encourages innovation. Born in Wales, Dr. Peake trained as an architect and fell into his current career in 1973 as a youth worker on Manhattan’s Lower East. For a decade he worked with
homeless families and with children of abused women using a combination of the arts, counseling, and family therapy approaches to engage young people and their families. He then spent another decade as a practitioner in community-based mental health, and in private psychotherapy practice.
Dwayne Proctor, PhD, senior adviser to the President and director, believes that the Foundation’s vision for building a Culture of Health presents a unique opportunity to achieve health equity by advancing and promoting innovative systems changes related to the social determinants of health.
Proctor came to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in 2002 as a senior communications and program officer, providing strategic guidance and resources for several child health and risk-prevention initiatives like the Nurse-Family Partnership, Free to Grow, Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol-Free, Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy. In 2005, Proctor was tapped to lead RWJF’s national strategies to reverse the rise in childhood obesity rates. In this role, he worked with his colleagues to (1) promote effective changes to public policies and industry practices; (2) test and demonstrate innovative community and school-based environmental changes; and (3) use both “grassroots” and “treetops” advocacy approaches to educate leaders on their roles in preventing childhood obesity. Proctor is known for his strategic collaborations, having worked on several cross-sector initiatives (e.g., Partnership for a Healthier America, the evaluation of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, ChildObesity 180) and national programs that focused on decreasing childhood obesity disparities gaps (e.g., Healthy Schools Program; Salud America!; Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities; Communities Creating Healthy Environments; National Policy and Legal Action Network; and Voices for Healthy Kids). In 2014, as multiple municipalities and states were reporting signs of progress in reversing the childhood obesity epidemic, Proctor was reassigned to direct RWJF’s work to eliminate health disparities.
Before coming to the Foundation, Proctor was an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine where he taught courses on health communication and marketing to multicultural populations. During his Fulbright Fellowship in Senegal, West Africa, his research team investigated how HIV/AIDS prevention messages raised awareness of AIDS as a national health problem. Proctor received his doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in marketing and communication science from the University of Connecticut. He is the former chairman of the board of directors for the Association of Black Foundation Executives and currently is the chairman of the board of trustees for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Srividya Ramasubramanian, PhD, MA, is Associate Dean for Climate & Inclusion in the College of Liberal Arts and Associate Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University. She is Cofounder and Executive Director of Media Rise, a global alliance for media educators, creative media professionals, activists, and artists committed to media for social good with over 3,000 members. Ramasubramanian specializes in media psychology, gender and racial stereotyping, global media and social change, and cultural diversity. Her research primarily looks at how media stereotypes and counter-stereotypes influence audiences’ attitudes about race, gender, nationality, and sexuality. Her recent projects examine implicit racial/gender stereotypes, prejudice reduction, digital new media literacy, and mindfulness media. She has published in leading journals such as Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Media Psychology, Sex Roles, and Journal of Social Issues. Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, National Public Radio, Dallas Morning News, and India Today apart from local media outlets. She has delivered several public talks and keynotes including at the London School of Economics, National University of Singapore, V University of Amsterdam, Hanover University, and the Communication University of China. She is/was editorial board member of journals such as Communication Monographs, Journal of International & Intercultural Communication, and Journal of Applied Communication Research.
Robert Seidel, MLA, is an adjunct faculty member in philosophy at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, focusing on political philosophy. He cofacilitates two undergraduate seminars, “Changing the World: Philosophical Theory and Policy Practice” and “Violence/Nonviolence: Ends, Means, and Political Philosophy.” He is also an independent consultant in Baltimore, focusing on education and youth development practice, policy, and advocacy. Prior to launching his consulting practice in 2014, Bob was Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives and Policy, for the National Summer Learning Association, where he worked on federal and state policy, strategic partnerships, and community-systems-building initiatives. He also spent a decade in the national office of Communities In Schools, serving as National Program Partnership Director and Government Resources Director, among other roles. Bob’s professional work has included being a teacher in the Baltimore City Public Schools, an administrator and faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, and Service-Learning Specialist at the federal Corporation for National and Community Service. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in sociology with honors and distinction from the University of Michigan as well as a master of liberal arts degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Sadé Soares is a rising, fourth-year clinical psychology graduate student at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). She graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a bachelor of science in psychology. Sadé is an Army Captain with nine years of active duty service. Prior to attending graduate school, she held several military leadership positions which included leading peers, enlisted members, and civilian government employees. Since beginning at USUHS, Sadé has served as an interventionist on studies aimed at preventing obesity and fostering healthy lifestyle changes. As a student, she has experienced much joy and growth working as a clinical teaching assistant and providing peer supervision. Sadé’s clinical interests include child and family problems, trauma, and psychosocial difficulties due to cultural factors. Her research interests include the intersectionality of historical trauma, cultural affiliation, and health factors. Currently, Sadé serves as the Student Chair of the District of Columbia Psychological Association. Sadé spends her free time playing with her infant son and taking on the world with her husband.
Patrick H. Tolan, PhD, is a professor at the University of Virginia in the Curry School of Education and in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences in the School of Medicine. He is director of the cross-university multidisciplinary center, Youth-Nex: The U.Va. Center to Promote Effective Youth Development. Established in 2009, Youth-Nex is a transdisciplinary nexus, focusing on the capabilities of young people in connection to health, communities, schools, and relationships engaging over 30 faculty across grounds. He leads the center’s mission to promote healthy youth development, to enhance the potential of youth as productive citizens and to reduce developmental risk, through focused research, training, and service. Youth-Nex collaborates at the local, state, and national levels to help apply innovations and best practices and engages in international collaborations on measuring and promoting youth development. It is now recognized nationally as a leading voice in research for direction in optimizing development of our children. Over the past 30 years Professor Tolan has conducted many research studies on youth development, programs to affect youth development and prevent problems, and to understand and affect youth violence.
Sharon Toomer Sharon Toomer is the recently appointed Executive Director of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Sharon has an extensive background in public affairs, communications, journalism and new media. Prior to joining NABJ, she served as the Senior Vice President, Public Affairs & Policy at a public relations agency, and as the Chief of Staff & Senior Policy
Advisor for U.S. Representative (D.C.-Shadow) Franklin Garcia. Sharon is also the founder of the award-winning digital news and information publication, BlackandBrownNews.com (BBN), where she was inspired to develop her perspective on community violence. She is the past recipient of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Political Reporting Fellowship, and her wide-range of experiences and multicultural worldview has earned her awards in journalism excellence, and appearances on television, radio, print and digital news outlets. Sharon lives in the Washington, D.C. area, and is a proud alumna of Spelman College.
JoAnn U. Tsark, MPH, is a Public Health Educator based in Hawai‘i, where she has spent more than three decades working to reduce health disparities experienced by Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders. She currently is Research Director of Papa Ola Lokahi (Native Hawaiian Board of Health), Program Director for ‘Imi Hale–Native Hawaiian Cancer Network (funded since 2000; U01CA86105/U01CA114630/U54CA153459), Colead of the Community-Based Research Core for the RCMI Multidisciplinary and Translational Research Infrastructure (RMATRIX, 2U54MD007584-04) at the UH Medical School, and instructor at the UH Office of Public Health Studies. In these roles, she has been instrumental in developing a robust, community-based infrastructure to increase community-based, participatory research (CBPR) that focuses on community-identified priorities. She founded Hawai‘i’s first community-based IRB, established an evidence-based cancer patient navigation training program, developed more than 100 culturally tailored education materials, and provided CBPR training and mentorship to hundreds of Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and students interested in indigenous health. Ms. Tsark has developed and maintains an extensive network of local, national, and international community and academic partners to support Papa Ola Lokahi’s work in the prevention and control of diabetes, cardiovascular risk disease, and cancer in Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.
Alford A. Young Jr., PhD, is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan. Professor Young has pursued research on low-income, urban-based African Americans, employees at an automobile manufacturing plant, African American scholars and intellectuals, and the classroom-based experiences of higher-education faculty as they pertain to diversity and multiculturalism. He employs ethnographic interviewing as his primary data collection method. His principal scholarly objective has been to explore how the social experiences of African Americans shape the emergence
of what sociologist Erving Goffman referred to as schemata of interpretation. These schemata include worldviews, belief systems, and ideologies. Here his work has centered on exploring the connections between the social location of individuals (i.e., differences in types of residential experiences, work histories, schooling experiences, etc.) and the content of their worldviews and beliefs systems about mobility, the world of work, and other social issues and conditions. His objective in research on low-income African American men, his primary area of research, has been to argue for a renewed cultural sociology of the African American urban poor. Essentially, he argues that behavior is not solely produced and regulated by values and norms, but is also affected by the beliefs, worldviews, and personal ideologies that people construct, adapt, and/or employ in forming what are, for them, common-sense understandings of social reality. More specifically, he explores how those understandings emerge in different form based on individuals’ patterns of social exposure to people who are positioned differently in various social hierarchies (racial, ethnic, class based, etc.).
