Maternal and Child Health on the U.S.-Mexico Border
Wednesday, July 23, 2008, 2:00–3:00 p.m. EDT (1:00–2:00 p.m. CDT, 12:00–1:00 p.m. MDT, 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. PDT)

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Presenter Information
In order of presentation

Gopal K. Singh, PhD
Senior Epidemiologist/Health Care Administrator
Office of Data and Program Development
Maternal and Child Health Bureau
Health Resources and Services Administration
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 18-41
Rockville, MD 20857
Phone: 301-443-0765
Fax: 301-443-9354
gsingh@hrsa.gov

Gopal K. Singh, PhD, is a Senior Epidemiologist with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Rockville, MD. His current research interests include social inequalities in health and mortality, obesity and physical activity, spatial and time trends in cancer incidence and mortality, immigrant health, and health disparities by ethnicity and socioeconomic deprivation. From 1998 to 2005, Dr. Singh worked as a cancer epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he published a comprehensive NIH monograph on socioeconomic status and cancer in the United States. Dr. Singh has also worked as a Senior Research Scientist at the Kansas Health Institute and a Research Demographer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. He has taught at the University of Kansas Medical Center and Ohio State University and has served as a statistical consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Government of Egypt.
Dr. Singh has published extensively in the field of health inequalities, immigrant health, obesity and physical activity, minority health, cancer epidemiology, and maternal and child health. His publications have appeared in such prestigious journals as American Journal of Public Health, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Cancer, International Journal of Epidemiology, Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, Canadian Journal of Public Health, Pediatrics, and Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Dr. Singh holds a PhD in sociology and demography from the Ohio State University, an MS in population planning from the University of Michigan, a post-master’s diploma in population studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences in Bombay, and an MS in statistics from India.

Jill A. McDonald, PhD
Senior Epidemiologist and US-Mexico Border Region Coordinator-Assignee
MCH EPI Team, Applied Sciences Branch
Division of Reproductive Health/NCCDPHP
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
4770 Buford Hwy, NE, Mailstop K-22
Atlanta, GA 30341
Phone: 770-488-6373
Fax: 770-488-6291
jmcdonald1@cdc.gov

Jill A. McDonald, PhD, is the Senior Epidemiologist and U.S.-Mexico Border Region Coordinator/Assignee for the MCH Epidemiology Team, Applied Sciences Branch, Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She joined the CDC’s MCH Epidemiology Team in 2006, where her work focuses on reproductive health and chronic disease issues in the U.S.-Mexico border region. In recent years, she directed a demonstration project to develop binational reproductive health surveillance methods in the hard-to-reach border population. She is currently leading CDC efforts to build MCH data capacity throughout the region. Previously, >Dr. McDonald held positions at the Universidad de Guadalajara in Mexico, the New Jersey State Health Department, and the University of Vermont. In 1996, Dr. McDonald joined the Division of Reproductive Health at CDC as Data Coordinating Center Director and Co-Principal Investigator for the Women’s Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study, a multisite collaborative study of reproductive factors and breast cancer. She also served as the Lead Scientist for the CDC’s Adolescent Reproductive Health Team from 2004 to 2006.

Brian C. Castrucci, MA
Office of Title V and Family Health
Division of Family and Community Health
Texas Department of State Health Services
Phone: 512-458-7111 x2006
Brian.castrucci@dshs.state.tx.us

Brian C. Castrucci, MA, is the Manager of the Family Health Research and Program Development Unit in the Office of Title V and Family Health at the Texas Department of State Health Services. He has worked with Healthy Start projects in Philadelphia and Texas; has developed case management and other health promotion programs; has implemented surveillance systems to monitor local child death review findings, infant sleep practices, and breastfeeding; and has provided support to the Texas Family Planning Program, the Texas Children with Special Health Care Needs Program, and the Texas Women, Infants, and Children Program. He has published research on topics that include adolescent tobacco use, breastfeeding, HIV/AIDS policy, and pregnancy. Previously, Mr. Castrucci worked at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Francis C. (Sam) Notzon, PhD
Director, International Statistics Program
National Center for Health Statistics
3311 Toledo Road, Room 2425
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Phone: 301-458-4402
Fax: 301-458-4043
SNotzon@cdc.gov

Francis C. (Sam) Notzon, PhD, is the director of the International Statistics Program, Office of the Director, at the National Center for Health Statistics.  He coordinates international activities for NCHS, represents NCHS to major international organizations, and is responsible for numerous international projects.  He has been active in the NCHS international program for more than 30 years, and has collaborated on health information projects in numerous countries including Morocco, Tunisia, West Africa, Jamaica, Mexico, Hungary, and Russia. Dr. Notzon was the lead U.S. participant in the US-Mexico-PAHO collaboration that prepared the 1994 border health report, Sister Communities Health Profiles. He collaborated with PAHO on the preparation of two reports on border mortality, Mortality Profiles of the Sister Communities on the U.S.-Mexico Border. For the US-Mexico Border Health Commission, he was responsible for developing the Healthy Border 2010 Program, a Healthy People-like health promotion and education program for both sides of the border. He is currently coordinating and contributing several chapters to the Border Health Status Report (forthcoming), to be published by the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission.