| |
TB Notes Newsletter
Return to TB Notes 2, 2006 Main Menu
This is an archived document. The links
and content are no longer being updated.
No. 2, 2006
PERSONNEL NOTES
Sandy Althomsons, MA, MHS, has joined DTBE in the Surveillance,
Epidemiology, and Outbreak Investigations Branch. Sandy
joined the branch as of April 11 as its new Data Manager (the position
previously held by Lynn Latimer). Sandy has
been with Northrop Grumman Corporation since 2002, working in the
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention
and Health Promotion and in the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and serving as Task Lead
for a Northrop Grumman Corporation Research and Development effort
addressing pandemic influenza surveillance detection and response.
Previously Sandy worked as a short-term professional
for the Stop TB Unit at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Manila,
the Philippines, where she helped monitor tuberculosis
programs for the region. Sandy received a masters
degree in biology from Washington University
in St. Louis, Missouri, and a masters degree in international
health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.
In her spare time she reads, studies German, and tries to improve
her cooking skills.
Eileen Bell, an Office Automation (OA) Clerk, recently began
working in the DTBE Office of the Director, and is available to
provide a wide array of administrative services to DTBE staff. Eileen,
who is organizationally a part of CDC’s Management Analysis and
Services Office (MASO), has been assigned to support all of NCHHSTP
but is located in DTBE for direct support. She brings with her a
great amount of experience and enthusiasm, and her OA support will
be beneficial to all. She is new to the Atlanta
area, having come here from Northern California
after serving in the Air Force in the 1990s on active duty. She
left after serving 4 years at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, as an Administrative Assistant. She also spent a number
of years at Kaiser
Permanente Hospital
working in different support capacities. In addition, Eileen has
had experience working in retail sales in private industry. We welcome
Eileen and are happy to have her here.
Deborah Carr was selected for a TB public health advisor
(PHA) position with the Austin/Travis County Health Department in
Austin, Texas, and has moved from Los Angeles, California, where
she had worked for CDC’s Division of STD Prevention. Deborah has
a BA degree in sociology from California State University.
She began her public health career with the STD program of the County of Los Angeles, working as a Disease
Intervention Specialist from 1991 to 1996. Her additional assignments
with the County STD
program included serving as a Research Analyst from 1996 to 1999
and as Syphilis Elimination Coordinator from 1999 to 2001. In 2001,
Deborah was hired by CDC’s Division of STD Prevention and was assigned
to Los Angeles as Lead
PHA/Special Projects Coordinator. This position involved the planning,
coordination, implementation, evaluation, and oversight of daily
operations of special STD/HIV screening projects in the Los Angeles
County Jail. Deborah began her assignment in Austin effective March 19, 2006.
Kim Field, RN, MN, the TB Program Manager for the Washington
State Department of Health, has been selected as President of the
Board of the American Lung Association of Washington (ALAW). In
2006, during Kim’s 2-year tenure as President, the ALAW will celebrate
its 100th anniversary. Kim has been a board member for
the ALAW for 5 years and a volunteer for 10 years. She has served
on multiple committees within the ALAW organization over the last
decade. In addition to the ALAW, she is also affiliated with other
public health organizations such as the Washington State Public
Health Association and the Washington State TB Advisory Committee.
“It is clear to everyone who knows her that Kim is a dedicated professional
for those living with lung disease,” said Marina Cofer-Wildsmith,
CEO of the ALAW. “I look forward to working with Kim over the coming
2 years to continue our strong work in promoting lung health issues
in Washington State.”
Kim has served as the TB Program Manager of the Washington State
Department of Health since 1996 and has been employed with the Department
since 1989. She has also been a member of National Tuberculosis
Controller’s Association since 1994 and has served on the Executive
Board as President (2004) and Secretary (2000). Kim is currently
serving as adjunct faculty at the University
of Washington’s School of Nursing. Since 1997, Kim has concurrently
been employed as a community-based home health nurse. She provides
skilled nursing services to patients recently discharged from acute
care and rehabilitation facilities. She applies nursing assessment
skills with the Oasis Assessment tool. Kim received a masters degree
in nursing from Seattle University
in 1997 and a bachelor of science degree in nursing from San Diego State University
in 1971. She has lifetime certification in Public Health Nursing
and School Nurse Standard Services Credentials from the State of
California.
Kathryn Ruck Guillen has been selected for the public health
advisor (PHA) position in New
Orleans with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Office
of Public Health. From June 2004 through January 2006, she functioned
as technical and programmatic advisor to the TB Program Manager
with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Her
primary responsibilities included serving as team leader for program
evaluations of New Jersey TB clinics and serving as the TB education
focal point for the state. From March 2002 to June 2004, Kate served
as an advisor to the South Carolina TB Controller, with a specific
focus on contact investigations. While in the position, she conducted
statewide trainings on contact investigations, developed state contact
investigation policies and procedures, participated in audits and
quality assurance reviews, and developed the content and reports
for the Tuberculosis Contact Investigation System (TBCIS). Prior
to that assignment, Kate served as a PHA for the New Jersey Department
of Health and Senior Services assigned to the Hudson County TB Program
as a public health field representative. Before coming to DTBE,
she was a member of the TB Control Program for the Louisiana Office
of Public Health. Kate began her new assignment on February 5, 2006.
Sandra Kong, MPH, has left DTBE after accepting a new position
as a Program Officer at the Academy for Educational Development
(AED), Center for Global Health Communication and Marketing in Washington,
DC. The Center works to bring about positive
changes in the actions of individuals, communities, and institutions
that will improve the health and well-being of vulnerable populations
around the world. Sandra will be working on various global
health projects through advocacy strategies, behavior change communications,
and community-based initiatives to provide technical support to
many health-related fields such as treatment of common childhood
diseases, pregnancy prevention, HIV/AIDS prevention, containment
of avian influenza, and communication in humanitarian emergencies. Sandra
joined the Communications, Education, and Behavioral Studies Branch
(CEBSB) as an ASPH Health Education and Instructional Design Fellow
in 2005, and has been a member of the Education, Training, and Behavioral
Studies Team. Sandra came to DTBE from the Global AIDS Program (GAP),
where she had served as an ASPH Global HIV Behavior Change Fellow
for 2 years. Sandra's last day in DTBE was April 11. We miss Sandra
and wish her the best of luck.
Lynn Latimer, MS, MIS, has left her position in DTBE as
data manager with the surveillance team in the Surveillance, Epidemiology,
and Outbreak Investigations Branch for a position at the University
of Georgia, Athens, as Data Analysis and Statistics Manager. She will be leading
efforts to establish an accountability program within the Information
Technology Division there. She was employed at CDC through the Northrop
Grumman contract, and worked with the surveillance team for over
one year. Lynn was the
recipient of the DTBE Director's Award for the first quarter of
2006; she was also the recipient of the NCHHSTP Director's Recognition
Award for March 2006. She received these awards for innovations
she made that improved quality, effectiveness, and efficiency; for
her initiative in developing new approaches or procedures; and for
her efforts beyond the call of duty and beyond the scope of her
position. Her leadership and efforts in the development and production
of the Annual Report (Reported Tuberculosis in the United
States, 2004) were exceptional. She introduced
efficiencies and automated certain processes which will save both
time and money next year. Furthermore, she documented all processes
in such detail that it will simplify the development of future reports.
Lynn began making significant contributions to
the surveillance team shortly after her arrival. She worked beyond
the scope of her position by taking a leadership role in “process
improvements.” She brought to every task the same level of dedication,
professionalism, and expertise that she demonstrated on the Annual
Report. She became instrumental in the development of procedures
for developing and sharing the completeness reports with our state
partners. She set up a system to take basic Excel information regarding
GPRA variable completion rates by state and evaluate these against
a predetermined completion goal which changed for each variable.
She was also able to automate the process to generate e-mails which
could be provided to the state TB controllers and FSEB consultants
responsible for each area, reducing this process from an estimated
several days to about an hour. Lynn
made wonderful contributions to our team, to our spirit, and to
the processes we follow to get our work done, and she will be missed.
Elvin Magee, MPH, joined the Surveillance Team of the Surveillance,
Epidemiology, and Outbreak Investigations Branch as a health scientist
on March 20, 2006. Besides being very personable, Elvin brings with
him a wide array of education and experience in the fields of engineering,
management, and public health surveillance. He joins us from the
Statistics and Data Management Branch, Division of Sexually Transmitted
Diseases (STD), where he served for almost 7 years as a Health Scientist
and Information Technology Specialist. He has a bachelor of science
degree in electrical engineering, a masters degree in human relations
and business, and a masters degree in public health. He transitioned
from private industry to public health in 1990 by serving as an
evaluation supervisor for the Dallas County AIDS Community Demonstration
Project. In this capacity, he supervised data collectors, and managed
the information system for this community-based project. In January
1996, he moved to Atlanta to work with the HIV/AIDS Reporting Systems (HARS) in the Division
of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP). Elvin trained personnel to use the
Health Information Retrieval System, which supported local surveillance
teams in extracting epidemiologic data from HARS. Elvin also worked
as data manager for the Young Men’s Survey Project in DHAP. His
efforts included data management for quality and survey development.
In August 1999, he joined the STD division and worked with the Syphilis
Elimination and Corrections Projects. He primarily supported the
Office of the Director and branch staff with data requests and routine
surveillance activities. In addition, he participated in the CDC
mentoring program, Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Council,
and emergency response efforts for Hurricane Katrina. In his leisure,
Elvin enjoys poetry, chess, basketball, football, and a variety
of music. He comes from a family rich in music as many of his relatives
are music teachers or performers.
Brandii Mayes, MPH, has joined DTBE from the Office
of the Chief Science Officer (OCSO) as part of her second CIO fellowship
assignment in the Public Health Prevention Service (PHPS) program.
While at the OCSO, she worked with the Science Vision and Alliances
Team to help with CDC's internal public health ethics capacity building
efforts. During her 6 months assignment at DTBE, Brandii will be
working with Field Services and Evaluation Branch and Surveillance,
Epidemiology, and Outbreak Investigations Branch staff to develop
a systematic process for evaluating the effectiveness of outbreak
response activities. Brandii received an undergraduate degree in
biology from Clark
Atlanta University.
As a student there, she became a member of Beta Kappa Chi National
Scientific Honor Society and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. During
her undergraduate summers, she conducted laboratory research at
various institutions including Harvard University School of Public
Health/Dana Farber Cancer Institute, The University of Texas Health
Science Center-Houston, University of Texas
Medical Branch, Clark Atlanta University,
and Morehouse College in areas such as HIV, ophthalmology
and visual science, diabetes, and environmental toxicology. During
her final undergraduate summer of 2002, she conducted research abroad
in Kingston, Jamaica,
with the assistance of the University of Maryland School of Medicine's
Fogarty MIRT program. There she co-authored her first journal article,
entitled Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of Jamaican
adolescents with HIV/AIDS. She obtained her masters degree in
public health from the University of Texas - Houston School of Public
Health with a concentration in community health practice. While
a student there, she spent 3 years conducting behavioral research
on several studies targeting high-risk, drug-using populations aimed
at encouraging condom use, testing, and education about HIV and
hepatitis B. A native of Houston,
Texas, Brandii enjoys organized sports, and is currently on a CDC Share
softball team. While in Houston, she coached an all-girl, award-winning high school step team
and was a member of the NBA's Houston Rockets G-Force Step Squad.
In her spare time, she enjoys working with youth in the community.
Paul Moffat has been selected for a TB public health advisor
(PHA) position with the Los Angeles County Health Department in
Los Angeles, California. Paul
departed for Los Angeles from Atlanta, Georgia,
where he had been working for CDC’s Coordinating Office for Global
Health, Division of Epidemiology and Surveillance Capacity Development
(DESCD). Paul began his CDC public health career with the Sexually
Transmitted Diseases (STD) program, working as a Disease Intervention
Specialist. His additional assignments have included serving as
a TB PHA in New Orleans, Louisiana, and later as a PHA in
the Immunization Program. Paul began his assignment in Los Angeles effective May 1, 2006.
Sarah O’Leary, MPH, MA, finished her assignment with DTBE
on April 5, 2006; this was her first assignment as a Public Health
Prevention Specialist Fellow. While in DTBE’s Field Services
and Evaluation Branch, she worked on several projects, focusing
primarily on evaluation with the Program Evaluation Team. She
provided technical assistance to state TB programs in the development
of their evaluation plans. She also worked on selecting indicators
from the indicator library, and preparing a draft guidance document
that will be further developed into a guide to using indicators
in TB program evaluation. Sarah also worked on analyzing the
2005 TB data for the US-affiliated Pacific Islands, and also prepared the executive
summary on that region which was released on World TB Day. Her
next assignment is with the Healthy Aging Program in the Division
of Adult and Community Health in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention
and Health Promotion. Sarah really enjoyed her time in DTBE,
commenting that “It was a wonderful opportunity to learn about TB
and program evaluation and a great group of dedicated people to
work with.”
Maureen O'Rourke was selected for the senior public
health advisor (PHA) position in Raleigh, North Carolina. She
is transferring from the Pennsylvania TB Program in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, where her responsibilities have included developing goals
and objectives consistent with national standards and incorporating
them into the cooperative agreement application. She independently
wrote the Human Resources Training Plan and assisted with the development
of a TB program evaluation plan for Pennsylvania. In addition, she provided TB technical assistance and
consultation throughout Pennsylvania, provided
presentations, and served as the surveillance coordinator as well
as the lead TB program representative for Pennsylvania’s
National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (PA-NEDSS). From
2002 to 2004, Maureen was assigned to the Tennessee TB Elimination
Program in Nashville, where her responsibilities included writing Tennessee's yearly progress reports and cooperative
agreement applications. Maureen completely redesigned the state’s
yearly statistical report, and also coordinated World TB Day activities
for the state. She also assisted in conducting quality assurance
activities for the regions and metropolitan areas in Tennessee. During her last 6 months in Tennessee, she independently revised the state's
guidelines for conducting effective contact investigations and also
redesigned the contact interview sheet. Maureen began her career
with CDC in Columbia, South
Carolina, as a PHA in the Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) program.
Before that, she was a state Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS)
for a year and a half in Hillsborough and Manatee counties of Florida.
Her job experiences also included clerical and administrative positions
at the Veterans Administration and with a National Guard MASH unit.
As a state and federal DIS, Maureen was trained and educated in
the fundamentals of public health delivery and epidemiology. In
1995 she was reassigned to Dallas, Texas, where she planned,
coordinated, and implemented special screening activities at homeless
shelters, detention centers, and other sites serving high-risk populations.
Maureen also presented educational and training programs. Maureen
reported to Raleigh, NC, on March 5, 2006.
Shameer Poonja, MPH, was selected for a public health
advisor (PHA) position with the Indiana State Health Department.
He is transferring from his current post at the New York City Department
of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of TB Control, where he has
been assigned since 2002. In his most recent position as the Homeless
Services Coordinator, Shameer has been involved in overseeing the
Bureau’s funded activities with the Department of Homeless Services
and HIV Care Services Administration (Ryan White Funding). His activities
with the Department of Homeless Services have focused on providing
directly observed therapy (DOT) at several DHS shelter sites, as
well as at the Bureau’s DOT unit at the 30th
Street Men’s Shelter; educating and offering skin testing to all
1500 DHS employees and new hires; and providing education and support
to contracted DHS shelter medical providers. Funding from the HIV
Care Services Administration has been used to assign Bureau staff
to several single-room occupancy (SRO) locations in order to target
education, screening, and on-site DOT services to coinfected HIV/TB
patients. Shameer began his career with CDC when he was selected
to fill the PHA position in New
York City in 2002. Prior to his CDC assignment, he had spent 4 years
with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 3 of which were
with the Division of TB Prevention and Control, coordinating the
Division's prevention activities. While with that Division, he was
directly responsible for its four community-based targeted testing
projects, and also served as the liaison between the Division and
various community-based organizations and coalitions. Prior to working
in TB, Shameer spent a year with the Refugee and Immigrant Health
Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on a CDC-funded
research project, evaluating the TB screening practices of the INS-appointed
civil surgeons. In 1998, he received his MPH from Boston University
School of Public Health. Shameer began his new assignment with Indiana on March 5.
Last Reviewed: 05/18/2008
Content Source: Division of Tuberculosis Elimination
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
|
