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No. 3, 2006
PERSONNEL NOTES
Philip Baptiste, M.Ed., left DTBE on June 23, 2006. Philip
worked in the Information Technology and Statistics Branch as
Project Lead for the NEDSS TB Surveillance PAM. As the Project Lead,
Philip provided the leadership in carrying out tasks to ensure that
the project met all the established timelines, costs, and
performance goals. He was responsible for coordinating and
disseminating information to the appropriate public and private
groups concerning the project’s progress at each lifecycle
milestone.
In addition, Phil effectively used the CDC Enterprise System
Catalog, an Internet Web application, to inventory all DTBE IT
investments and thus allow DTBE to answer Office of Management and
Budget and HHS data calls. Phil also conducted regular project
analysis meetings to determine the progress of specific DTBE IT
investments; excelled in preparing project documentation and other
required materials, including those needed for the assessment and
evaluation stages of IT project development; reviewed "Work
Breakdown Structures" and prioritization criteria prior to and
during IT project development and deployment; presented IT project
schedule and performance baselines to the DTBE business steward for
approval; intervened to prevent slippage of cost and schedule
projections; and effectively participated in postdevelopment review
of IT projects.
Phil was promoted to the position of Team Leader for the Public
Health Information Network (PHIN) Support Section of the Alliance
Management and Consultation Division of the National Center for
Public Health Informatics (NCPHI), effective June 26, 2006. We will
sorely miss him here at DTBE and wish him the best as he faces new
challenges in his public health career.
Ann M. Buff, MD, MPH, who attended Dunwoody High School,
Atlanta, and received a BA degree in history from the University of
Notre Dame, joins the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Outbreak
Investigations Branch (SEOIB) on July 31 as its new EIS Officer. In
1997 she received her MD degree from Indiana University of Medicine
in Indianapolis, and in 2003 she received her MPH degree from Tulane
University in New Orleans. She comes to CDC from the Navy, where she
has been a Preventive Medicine Officer and a Flight Surgeon.
Christine Robinette (“Robin”) Curtis, MD, MPH, has left
DTBE and accepted an Atlanta-based position with CDC’s National
Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, effective April 1,
2006. This move was an exciting one for Robin as it will allow her
to continue and complete work related to vaccine-preventable
diseases and will also permit her to be closer to her family. As a
U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Officer assigned through
DTBE to the TB Control Branch (TBCB) of the California Department of
Health Services (CDHS), Robin served as Chief of the Outbreak
Prevention and Control Section (OPCS), which was launched in July
2005 shortly after Robin’s formal transfer to the assignment. In
addition to other roles and responsibilities, she supervised the
CDHS Multidrug-Resistant TB (MDR TB) Service, which is dedicated to
the enhanced detection, treatment, and management of MDR TB cases
throughout California. Robin earned her medical degree at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995. From 2001
through 2003 she served as an EIS officer with the National
Immunization Program. From 2003 to 2004 Robin completed CDC’s
Preventive Medicine Residency Program, during which time she earned
an MPH degree at Emory University, and she served in a practicum
assignment with California’s TBCB from 2004 to 2005.
Andrea (Annie) Hoopes has joined DTBE as the first CDC
Experience Fellow assigned to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and
Outbreak Investigations Branch (SEOIB). Annie was one of eight
medical students chosen from among 50 who competed for this 1-year
applied epidemiology fellowship. Annie graduated magna cum laude
from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where she majored
in Classics and Humanities. She is presently a second-year medical
student at the Ohio State University School of Medicine and Public
Health. Annie spent four consecutive summers working on adolescent
health research and school-based prevention programming through Case
Western University’s Center for Adolescent Health, and has
co-authored a publication on the impact of adolescent spirituality
on depressive symptoms and health risk behaviors. Annie is
interested in health disparities research as well as international
health. She plans to pursue a career in internal medicine, public
health, and infectious diseases. Annie speaks and writes Swedish,
Italian, and Spanish. Funded by a grant from Pfizer Inc, the “CDC
Experience: Applied Epidemiology” fellowship at CDC provides medical
students with an applied hands-on training experience in
epidemiology and public health. Up to 10 competitively selected
third- and fourth-year medical students from around the country
spend up to 1 full year at CDC in Atlanta, Georgia. While at CDC,
with the guidance of experienced CDC epidemiologists, they carry out
epidemiologic analyses in areas such as birth defects, injury,
chronic disease, infectious disease, environmental health,
reproductive health and minority health.
Heather Joseph, MPH, left DTBE in June for a position in
the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP). Heather is joining the
Prevention Research Branch as a Behavioral Scientist on the
Individual and Small Group Interventions Team. Heather joined DTBE’s
Clinical and Health Systems Research Branch (CHSRB) first as an ASPH
fellow and became a Health Scientist on the Health Systems Research
team a year later. During her 5 years with CHSRB, Heather made
significant contributions to numerous projects. The first was her
involvement in a study assessing health care workers’ adherence to
TB treatment policies and protocols, which culminated in a
publication in the American Journal of Infection Control for
which she was lead author. With a background in anthropology,
Heather contributed to the writing of a TB chapter in the
Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology, which involved an extensive literature
review of the historical contributions made by the field of
anthropology and other social sciences to TB control. One of her
biggest projects was the ethnographic study of perceptions of TB
among five foreign-born groups in the U.S., for which Heather served
as co-PI, substantially contributing to the design, development,
implementation, analysis, and reporting of the findings. Reporting
has been via site reports, oral and poster presentations at
professional meetings, and manuscripts that are in progress.
Heather has also made valuable contributions to the development
of TBESC Task Order 13 LTBI study of factors associated with
acceptance and adherence. One of only a few other social scientists
on the study team, Heather helped conceptualize Phase 3 of the study
and develop the numerous data collection instruments. She also
actively planned and participated in implementing the interviewer
and piloting trainings for the 12 participating study sites.
Heather also co-led a collaborative study with HRSA to enhance TB
testing and treatment practices among HIV service providers. The
project involved analyzing data from Ryan White Care Act funded
providers and developing a study protocol to conduct in-depth case
studies among 6 selected HIV clinics. Additionally, Heather led a
project to access Marketscan, an administrative claims and encounter
database from the private health care sector, to determine its
utility for TB health services research.
In addition to her research contributions,
Heather played an active role in the development and implementation
of activities led by the Evaluation Working Group. Besides helping
to develop and deliver program evaluation trainings, Heather served
as a member of the Evaluation Tools Team, where she assisted in
collecting and assessing evaluation tools used by TB programs.
Heather also contributed greatly to the development of the strategic
evaluation plan, the TB Program Evaluation Handbook, and the
Introduction to Program Evaluation for Public Health
Programs. Finally, during her time at DTBE, Heather was offered the
exciting opportunity with the International Experience and Technical
Assistance program. She spent 3 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
working with the CDC-Ethiopia Associate Director of Science to
develop a research agenda and build capacity in their local human
research protections system. We will surely miss Heather’s
outstanding contributions and her ever-cheerful, spirited character.
Heather Lynch, MD, MPH, (soon to be Heather Menzies) will
be joining the International Research and Programs Branch (IRPB) in
August as its new EIS Officer. She arrives in Atlanta from Seattle,
where she is working as a primary care pediatrician in public health
at King County, and a project development advisor for the University
of Washington Child Health Institute. Heather attended the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and graduated with a BA
degree in biology and anthropology in 1992, finished her medical
degree at the Yale University School of Medicine in 1998, and also
received her MPH degree from the University of Washington in
Seattle. She has received numerous awards for community service, and
comes to DTBE with an interest in pediatric tuberculosis.
Scott McNabb, PhD, leaves DTBE on July 21 for a new
position in CDC. He has been named the new Director, Division of
Integrated Surveillance Systems and Services (DISSS), National
Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI), Coordinating Center
for Health Information and Service (CoCHIS). As Director of DISSS,
he will lead CDC’s efforts to identify, assess, and pursue national
and international solutions to integrated surveillance and response
efforts. While at DTBE, he led a related effort under Task Order #10
to identify, assess, and pursue integrated and user-friendly
monitoring and evaluation tools for TB at the county and state
levels.
As Director of DISSS, Scott will also lead CDC’s efforts to
develop, implement, and maintain common platforms, agency-wide
systems, and applications for integrated solutions, including those
for integrated surveillance, lab reporting, and response. He will
lead the existing NEDSS, NNDSS/NETSS/NNDSS-link, and Epi Info
activities, as well as the LRN Real Time Laboratory Information
Exchange, the Specimen Tracking and Results Reporting System (STARRS),
and the Coordinating Systems for Managing Outbreaks and Health
Events (OMS). Since many of these efforts directly impact DTBE, we
are happy to have someone who knows about tuberculosis in this
leadership position.
Cheryl Scott, MD, has accepted a position as a DTBE/FSEB
medical officer in the California Department of Health Services (CDHS).
She comes to DTBE with 13 years of CDC experience in the areas of
HIV/AIDS and global health, reproductive and child health services,
program evaluation, and disaster epidemiology. From 1993 to 1995,
Dr. Scott served in CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service program
while assigned to the CDHS Maternal and Child Health section, and
later worked for 3 years as New Jersey’s State Maternal and Child
Health epidemiologist. While at CDC headquarters, Dr. Scott led an
update of postneonatal mortality surveillance and developed an
evaluation strategy for the Guide to Community Preventive
Services. During 2000-2005, while working with CDC’s Global AIDS
Program and the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, Dr.
Scott established an in-country CDC office and directed an HIV/AIDS
infrastructure development, care, and treatment program in the
United Republic of Tanzania and Zanzibar. Prior to joining CDC, Dr.
Scott provided clinical services to underserved populations in New
York City and the U.S. Virgin Islands and worked on global health
projects in Africa and India. Dr. Scott received her BA degree from
the University of California at Santa Cruz and her medical degree
from Boston University School of Medicine. She completed residencies
in internal medicine at UCLA/Charles Drew-King Hospital in Los
Angeles and in preventive medicine while at CDC. She received an MPH
degree in international health from Johns Hopkins University School
of Hygiene and Public Health. Dr. Scott has published in the areas
of maternal and child health, disaster epidemiology, and HIV/AIDS.
Cheryl Tryon, MS, joined DTBE
on June 12 as a Health Education Specialist in the Communications,
Education, and Behavioral Studies Branch. Cheryl has over 25 years
of experience in designing, developing, evaluating, and implementing
health education and training materials. She began working at CDC in
1987, first in the Public Health Practice Program Office (PHPPO),
Division of Professional Development and Evaluation, then in the
Global AIDS Program (GAP). Prior to coming to CDC, she developed
health education materials for medical schools in Texas. Cheryl
received her MS degree in Biomedical Communications from the
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and a BA
degree in Art/Art Education from the University of South Florida,
Tampa.
Cheryl is no stranger to our
Division. While in PHPPO, she worked on the original Self-Study
Modules on Tuberculosis that were distributed nationally, and the
supporting distance learning satellite broadcast entitled "Satellite
Primer on Tuberculosis" back in 1995. She also worked with us on the
supplemental Self-Study Modules and the Web-Based Self-Study Modules
on Tuberculosis course. While in GAP, she worked with DTBE staff to
develop and provide a train-the-trainer course in Botswana on
implementation of routine HIV testing in the TB program. And
earlier this year, she taught a TB program train-the-trainer class
in Russia with CEBSB staff.
Many of the projects she has worked on have won international,
national, and CDC awards for excellence in health education
materials, including the Freddy award and the International Society
for Performance Improvement award which were for joint projects with
DTBE.
Holly Wilson, MHSE, CHES, has joined the Communications,
Education, and Behavioral Studies Branch as a Health Education
Specialist. Holly will be working with Maria Fraire on the
Communications Team. Holly comes to DTBE from the Division of Viral
Hepatitis (DVH) where she was also a Health Education Specialist. In
DVH, Holly served as the acting team lead and her responsibilities
included designing, implementing, and evaluating viral hepatitis
education and communication campaigns for health professionals and
the general public, and monitoring cooperative agreements. She
received a BS degree in Health Science Education and a Master of
Health Science Education degree from the University of Florida.
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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