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TB Notes Newsletter
No. 2, 2007
PERSONNEL NOTES
Peter Cegielski, MD, of DTBE’s International
Research and Programs Branch received the 2007 Brachman
Award on April 19, 2007, at the 56th Epidemic
Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference for excellence in
teaching epidemiology to EIS Officers. Peter was
selected to receive this award by the EIS Class of 2005,
which just completed its 2-year training. Peter was the
co-recipient of this year's award along with Dr. Joshua
Mott of the National Center for Immunization and
Respiratory Diseases. Congratulations, Peter!
Al Forbes is returning to DTBE in Atlanta in
June as a TB Program Consultant. He has been serving in
the Miami, Florida, public health advisor position since
September 18, 2005. Al began his CDC career in 1993 as a
public health associate with the New York City (NYC)
Department of Health Bureau of Tuberculosis Control. His
assignment to NYC provided him with a broad
understanding of public health and knowledge about
programmatic issues and clinical services. In 1997, he
was promoted and transferred to the New Jersey
Department of Health and Senior Services Tuberculosis
Program, where he served as the assistant to the senior
public health advisor. While there, he provided
consultation and technical assistance in program
planning, coordination, operations, training,
administration, and evaluation. In 1999, Al was selected
as the assistant project manager for the Tuberculosis
Information Management System (TIMS). In this position
he provided technical assistance and training to TIMS
users nationwide. He worked closely with the
Surveillance Branch regarding the interface of TB
surveillance data and with the Field Services and
Evaluation Branch (FSEB) program consultants regarding
resource needs and management problems. In 2001, he
became a program consultant and assumed the duties of
overseeing DTBE’s COAG activities and providing guidance
and consultation to the Mid-Atlantic region. Welcome
back, Al!
Judy Gibson, BSN, MSN, Nurse Consultant, Field
Services and Evaluation Branch, DTBE, was a recipient of
the Chief Nurse Officer Award. Please see the related
article in this issue.
Regina Gore is being reassigned to DTBE in Atlanta as a
TB program consultant in May. Since January 2003, she
has been the special projects coordinator for the TB
Control Program in Frankfort, Kentucky. Regina started
her CDC career in 1989 as a public health associate
assigned to the Fulton County Sexually Transmitted
Disease (STD) control program in Atlanta, Georgia. She
also held STD positions in Tampa, Florida, from June
1990 until January 1992, when she was promoted to a
first-line supervisor position in Kansas City, Missouri.
After resigning from CDC in 1994, she moved to Miami,
Florida, where she became the program coordinator for a
mobile HIV testing team. In September 1998, she
relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, and became a research
interviewer for Emory University, providing STD services
for clients enrolled in a program called Project
Prevent, which provided assistance for expectant mothers
with substance abuse problems. She was rehired by CDC/DTBE
in January 2000 and was assigned to the Palm Beach
County, Delray Beach Health Department, TB Program from
2000 to 2003. Her duties in Delray Beach included
providing DOT and DOPT therapy, presenting cases in
chart review with the regional consultant, and
conducting contact investigations and case management.
Darryl Hardge has been selected for the senior
public health advisor position for the state of
Pennsylvania. His official start date in Harrisburg was
March 19, 2007. Darryl most recently served as the
Program Director for the Washington, DC, TB Control
Program. During his tenure there, Darryl made
significant progress in strengthening and modernizing
the TB control program through the recruitment of key
staff and by planning and coordinating the renovations
for a new, state-of-the-art TB clinic, to open in 2007.
In addition, he completed a temporary duty assignment
assisting the Louisiana TB program with recovery efforts
from hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
Darryl came to work for CDC in May 1991 as a public
health associate in the Division of Sexually Transmitted
Disease Prevention, and was assigned to the Division's
Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) training center in
Decatur, Georgia. In 1992 Darryl was reassigned to
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a DIS working in high-morbidity
areas. From January until February 1996, he had a
temporary duty assignment in Baltimore, assisting the
STD program with an outbreak of syphilis and HIV. In
1996 Darryl became a lead worker in Milwaukee,
supervising six DIS staff. In October 1997, he joined
DTBE and was assigned with promotion to the state of
Louisiana TB program. In November 1998, Darryl assumed a
number of the senior PHA duties on an interim basis for
the Louisiana TB Program and received a promotion for
these efforts. In May 1999, he was assigned to the
Baltimore TB program as the program manager. During this
assignment, Darryl led the program through two large and
complex TB outbreaks. During his tenure in Baltimore,
Darryl participated on a temporary duty assignment in
Washington, DC, helping with CDC's effort to respond to
the anthrax attacks. In 2002, Darryl took a position as
a Program Consultant with DTBE at CDC headquarters and
was responsible for providing consultation and
assistance to TB control programs in Missouri, Kansas,
Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and
Minnesota. FSEB thanks Darryl for an excellent duty
assignment in Washington, DC, and congratulates him on
his new assignment to Pennsylvania.
Ken Johnson, formerly a DTBE public health
advisor (PHA), left the division and joined CDC’s
Division of Global Public Health & Capacity Development
In March 2007. Ken began working with CDC in 1990 as a
PHA with the Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease in
Chicago, Illinois, working with the Chicago Department
of Health and then working with the North Carolina State
Department of Health. Subsequently he transitioned to
and began working with the Division of Tuberculosis
Elimination in New York City and the Fulton County
Department of Health and Wellness. He has worked at
various levels in public health management, including
his most recent position as the TB Program Coordinator
in Fulton County, Georgia. While working in DTBE, he was
also deployed to various locations for temporary duty
assignments including Brazil, New Orleans after
Hurricane Katrina, and most recently Mississippi.
Heather R. Morrow-Almeida, MPH, completed her
assignment with DTBE on April 13, 2007. This was her
first assignment as a Public Health Prevention Service
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 collaborated with members of the Program
Evaluation team and the Surveillance team (SEOIB) on the
development and pilot testing of the National
Tuberculosis Indicators Project (NTIP), a monitoring
tool consisting of indicator reports that match national
TB program objectives. This tool will help TB control
programs monitor their progress in meeting the national
objectives for TB and will inform future directions for
program evaluation. She also worked on several documents
that complement the evaluation toolkit materials
developed by the Program Evaluation team for state
partners. These documents include profiles of TB
indicators focused on TB program priorities, and a model
evaluation plan to be refined into a case study.
Heather’s next assignment is with the Associate
Director for Science in the National Center for
Environmental Health. She will be working on
advancements in the field of health and the built
environment. Heather truly enjoyed her time working in
DTBE, and leaves with tremendous respect for the
hardworking and dedicated individuals she met in the
division. She is secretly plotting her return to the
division, and hopes it won’t take long.
Charles Wells, MD, Chief of DTBE’s
International Research and Programs Branch (IRPB), is
leaving CDC for a research position in private industry.
Charles obtained his medical degree from the University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, completed his
postgraduate training at Emory University School of
Medicine, and is board certified in internal medicine
and infectious diseases. From 1995 until 1997 he served
as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer in
DTBE's then-named International Activity, where he
helped define the epidemiology of TB in foreign-born
persons and identify risk factors associated with active
TB in recent immigrants and refugees. He then completed
an infectious disease fellowship at Emory University
School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia (1997-1998).
After completing the fellowship, he held the position of
Associate Director, Medical Affairs with PathoGenesis
Corporation in Seattle (1998-1999). In this role, he led
clinical research activities, specifically being
responsible for the design and medical monitoring of
phase 1, 2, and 3 novel anti-TB drugs. In November 1999
he was again recruited to join DTBE's International
Activity, this time as a Medical Epidemiologist. In that
position, Charles served as the project officer in the
development and implementation of a model center for
multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB treatment in Latvia, and
was instrumental in implementing operations research
activities in Russia and Peru. In 2000, Charles was
selected as the Chief of the branch to replace Dr. Nancy
Binkin, who was retiring. As Chief, Charles leads a
branch of medical epidemiologists, public health
advisors, fellows, research nurses, and administrative
support staff in Atlanta, Botswana, Brazil, India,
Paris, and Thailand, with a current total of 78 in the
branch. He has supervised projects in Russia, Ukraine,
Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Mexico, Peru, El
Salvador, Brazil, Guyana, Haiti, South Africa, Botswana,
Ethiopia, Mozambique, Rwanda, India, Thailand, Cambodia,
Vietnam, and Philippines. In this coordinating role,
Charles was responsible for developing and maintaining
crucial political and financial relationships with
global partners, donors, and individual countries.
In addition to leading the unit in providing
technical assistance and supportive research for TB
control in more than 20 countries, Charles has also
served on several important international committees.
From September 2000 to January 2005, he served as the
CDC alternate for the World Health Organization (WHO)
Green Light Committee (GLC). The GLC is a 6-member panel
drawn from leading international technical agencies
coordinated by WHO to facilitate access by
resource-limited countries to lower-priced second-line
drugs for treatment of MDR TB. The GLC serves as a
protective mechanism to prevent development of
widespread resistance to second-line drugs for TB
treatment. From January 2001 to 2007, he served as a
board member of the TB Coalition for Technical
Assistance (TBCTA). The coalition coordinates USAID
resources totaling $150 million for provision of
technical assistance to developing countries with a high
TB burden. Also, from June 2004 to 2007, Charles was a
member of the U.S. government interagency TB/HIV
technical working group for PEPFAR. This group provides
technical support and input to the Office of the Global
AIDS Coordinator related to the screening, diagnosis,
treatment, and management of HIV-associated TB within
the framework of the PEPFAR initiative. In addition to
his accomplishments as a scientist, Charles embodies the
caring, dedicated, and visionary spirit that sets our
division apart from others and which enables him every
year to recruit outstanding new EIS officers and
permanent staff to the division in pursuit of global TB
elimination. We wish Charles all the best in his new
position, and will miss his dynamic leadership.
Last Reviewed: 05/18/2008 Content Source: Division of Tuberculosis Elimination
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
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