Associate Editors

Lawrence Barker, PhD

Senior Advisor

Office of the Associate Director for Science

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Atlanta, Georgia

 

Dr. Barker has been with CDC since 1998. He worked in the National Immunization Program (Data Management Division), the National Center for Injury Prevention in the Division of Violence Prevention, and the NCCDPHP (Division of Diabetes Translation, Division of Community Health, and Office of the Director). Prior to coming to CDC, Dr. Barker worked for the US Department of Energy in  Las Vegas, Nevada, and the executive branch in Washington, DC, taught mathematics at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee, and served as visiting faculty at the Department of Statistics at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Dr. Barker was a winner in CDC’s 2010 Statistical Sciences Award and a runner-up in 2012, 2010, 2005, and 2004. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. In addition, he served on the editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and as a guest editor of PCD and Injury Prevention. Dr. Barker received his doctoral and master’s degrees in statistics from Florida State University.

Appointment Term: 2016–2019

 

 

Ronny A. Bell, PhD, MS

Professor and Chair

Department of Public Health

East Carolina University School of Medicine

Greenville, North Carolina

 

Dr. Bell is Professor with tenure of Public Health Sciences (Department of Epidemiology and Prevention) at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is also Director of the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at Wake Forest, a designated Center of Excellence with the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. In November 2016, he will assume the position of Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health at East Carolina University. Dr. Bell currently serves as the Chair of the North Carolina Diabetes Advisory Council and the North Carolina American Indian Health Board. He also serves on the American Diabetes Association Health Disparities Committee. Dr. Bell received his master’s and doctoral degrees in nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and his master’s in epidemiology at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in gerontology at Wake Forest before joining the faculty in 1996.

Appointment Term: 2016–2020

 

 

Michele Casper, PhD

Epidemiologist

Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Atlanta, Georgia

 

Dr. Casper is the Team Lead for the Small Area Analysis Team within the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention at CDC. The activities of her team include: the Interactive Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke, the GIS Capacity Building Project for State and Local Health Departments, The Chronic Disease GIS Exchange, and the study of spatio-temporal trends in heart disease and stroke. She is interested in reducing the geographic disparities in heart disease and stroke and using local-level data to tailor heart disease and stroke prevention efforts to the specific needs of communities. Michele received her doctorate in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina.

Appointment Term: 2014-2018

 

 

Tripp Corbin, MCP, GISP

Chief Executive Officer

eGIS Associates, Inc

Dacula, Georgia

 

With more than 20 years of surveying, mapping, and GIS related experience, Tripp Corbin is recognized as a geospatial industry leader with expertise in a variety of geospatial software packages including Esri, Autodesk, and Trimble products. During the course of his career, Tripp has assisted with the design, implementation, integration, and maintenance of GIS to support many government and business activities including Asset Management, Planning, Engineering, Emergency Response, Site Selection, Crime Analysis, and more. His experience is backed by multiple industry certifications including Certified GIS Professional (GISP), Microsoft Certified Professional, Esri Certified Enterprise System Design Associate, and Esri Certified Desktop Professional, among others. Tripp is the Immediate Past President of URISA and a past President of Georgia URISA. He was also a member of the expert panel that drafted the Department of Labor Geospatial Technology Competency Model and is currently assisting with an update to the model. Tripp has authored two books on Esri’s newest desktop GIS application, ArcGIS Pro. He was awarded the URISA Leadership and the Barbara Hirsch Special Service Awards in recognition of his contributions to promoting, supporting, and growing the GIS profession.

Appointment Term: 2018-2021

 

 

Paul Estabrooks, PhD

Harold M. Maurer Distinguished Chair

College of Public Health | Department of Health Promotion, Social & Behavioral Health

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Omaha, Nebraska

 

Dr. Estabrooks is the Harold M. Maurer Distinguished Chair and Professor in the Department of Health, Promotions, Social & Behavioral Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE. Dr. Estabrooks work focuses on testing innovative physical activity, nutrition, and weight control programs, policies, and practice interventions that can be adopted in schools, workplaces, and healthcare clinics. Dr. Estabrooks also studies health promotion initiatives that can be implemented and sustained in typical community and clinical settings, at a reasonable cost—with a focus on achieving health equity. Dr. Estabrooks is the author of nearly 200 publications, mostly focusing on how best to integrate evidence-based practice into typical community in clinical settings.

Appointment Term: 2017–2020

 

 

Tiffany Gary-Webb, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor

Departments of Behavioral and Community Sciences and Epidemiology

Graduate School of Public Health

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

 

Dr. Gary-Webb is Associate Professor in the Departments of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health. She has held faculty positions at several other top-tiered schools of public health including the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her current research agenda is the culmination of 16 years of experience working to understand the social and environmental determinants of chronic disease and implementing interventions to improve prevention and control. Her areas of research are divided into three defined areas: 1) the social determinants of diabetes and obesity, 2) interventions to improve diabetes outcomes for minority populations, and 3) translation of research findings to practice and real-world evaluation. She has held leadership positions in several national organizations including the American Diabetes Association, the American Public Health Association, and the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network. She completed her doctorate and master’s degrees in clinical epidemiology from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at CDC.

Appointment Term: 2016–2019

 

 

Youlian Liao, MD

Senior Epidemiologist

Division of Community Health

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Atlanta, Georgia

 

Dr. Liao is a Senior Epidemiologist in the Division of Population Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at CDC. He serves as a subject matter expert in conducting epidemiological research studies examining cause and patterns of health and illness status in populations. Dr. Liao’s research has contributed to CDC’s ability to plan and evaluate strategies to prevent chronic diseases. Dr. Liao has considerable expertise in the formulation of community interventions, clinical trials, and observational studies. He has served as Deputy Associate Director for Science in the Division of Adult and Community Health at CDC. Prior to joining CDC, Dr. Liao served as Professor in the Department of Biometry and Epidemiology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He completed his MD at the Zhong Shan Medical College in the People’s Republic of China and his postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology and preventive cardiology at Northwestern University Medical School.

Appointment Term: 2016-2020

 

 

Sarah L. Martin, PhD, MS

Assistant Professor of Social and Administrative Sciences

Department of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences

Husson University School of Pharmacy

Bangor, Maine

 

Dr. Martin joined the Husson University School of Pharmacy as an assistant professor of Social and Administrative Sciences in 2013. Prior to joining the School of Pharmacy, she was adjunct professor of epidemiology at Husson University in the School of Science and Humanities. She has more than 25 years of experience in public health. She was a health scientist for CDC, and she taught research-related courses at the University of Maine at Farmington and Morehead State University. Dr. Martin has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and serves as a reviewer for several health-related journals. Her research focuses on substance use disorders, health equity, and the assessment of pharmaceutical needs in rural settings in the midst of the changing health care environment. She received an AB from Brown University, an MS from the University of New Mexico, and a PhD from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina.

Appointment Term: 2017-2019

 

 

Sandra Carr Melvin, DrPH, MPH, MCS

Chief Operating Officer

Open Arms Health Care Center

Jackson, Mississippi

 

Dr. Melvin serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Open Arms Health Care Center, located in Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Melvin has strong methodological and technical expertise in the design, conduct, and analysis of epidemiological studies. She has served as the principal investigator for several community-based studies that examine the influence of social determinants on health outcomes. Her collaborations have resulted in publications that explore health disparities related to the development of infectious and chronic diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, TB, diabetes, and asthma. She has also produced manuscripts that examine social factors that contribute to health disparities. As a social epidemiologist, her research focuses on those chronic and infectious disease health disparities that exist within minority and underserved communities. She holds doctorate and master’s degrees in epidemiology from the Jackson State University School of Public Health.

Appointment Term: 2016–2019

 

 

Jeremy Mennis, PhD, MS

Professor

Department of Geography and Urban Studies

Temple University

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

Dr. Jeremy Mennis is a professor in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University. His area of expertise is geographic information systems (GIS) and science and its application to health and environment. His current research focuses on GIS-based modeling of neighborhood, environmental, and social contexts of health behaviors and outcomes, with a focus on substance use and addiction. He has served as chair of the Geographic Information Science and Systems Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers, on the board of directors for both the GIS Certification Institute and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, and on the editorial board of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, among several other journals. Dr. Mennis received a doctorate in geography from Pennsylvania State University and is a certified GIS Professional (GISP).

Appointment Term: 2018–2020

 

 

Qaiser Mukhtar, PhD, MSc

Health Scientist

Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Atlanta, Georgia

 

Dr. Mukhtar leads efforts at CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity to increase physical activity in American worksites through scientific translation, consultation, and partnership. She came to CDC from the New Mexico State Department of Health, where she was the hantavirus epidemiologist and led a community-based diabetes primary prevention research study assessing the association between Acanthosis nigricans and hyperinsulinemia among middle-school students. At CDC, she has served in several key leadership roles: in the Community Guide Branch, the Applied Research and Translation Team at the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, and the Applied Research and Evaluation Team at the Division for Diabetes Translation. Dr. Mukhtar received a BSc and an MSc from the University of Karachi, Pakistan, and a PhD from the University of South Carolina.

Appointment Term: 2017-2019

 

 

Sarah Patrick, PhD, MPH

Administrator

Jackson County Health Department

Murphysboro, Illinois

 

Dr. Patrick graduated from the University of Illinois and University of Pittsburgh, where she was trained at the WHO Collaborating Center for Diabetes Registries, Research and Training. In the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service, she was a field officer with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. A former State Epidemiologist for South Dakota and Missouri and Deputy Director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, she now directs the Jackson County Health Department (JCHD) in Illinois. JCHD is part of the Healthy Southern Illinois Delta Network, where regional provision of services such as HIV Care Connect, opioid misuse response, and HealthWorks youth care connection are provided by JCHD. Dr. Patrick serves on the Executive Committee of the Washington University Center for Community Health Partnership and Research (CCHPR) and is an adjunct faculty member at the Southern Illinois University public health graduate program.

Appointment Term: 2018-2020

 

 

 

James M. Peacock, PhD, MPH

Epidemiologist

Cardiovascular Health Unit

Minnesota Department of Health

St. Paul, Minnesota

 

Dr. Peacock monitors state and local trends in cardiovascular disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease and associated risk factors by using diverse data sources. He is especially interested in the use of geographic information systems to describe chronic diseases, risk factors, access to health care resources, and the provision of health care services by geographic distribution, to better identify the needs of local communities. He received a PhD and an MPH from the University of Minnesota, and a bachelor’s degree from Earlham College.

Appointment Term: 2017-2020

 

 

 

Deborah Salvo, PhD

Assistant Professor of Public Health

George Warren Brown School

Washington University in St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

 

Dr. Deborah Salvo is Assistant Professor of Public Health in Austin. She is also an Adjunct Researcher and Faculty Member at the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico. Her research interests center on the reduction of social and health disparities and the promotion of health equity. Specifically, her work focuses on understanding the context-specific relations between the built environment and health; documenting and ameliorating geospatial health disparities; and using and improving objective measures to quantify physical activity and relevant geospatial exposures (ie, social & built environment: using GIS, accelerometry, GPS, and other new technologies). She is an active member of a global network of researchers working jointly to advance the understanding of the relation between the features of urban environments and behavioral health outcomes, with a strong focus on physical activity. Dr. Salvo is committed to advancing this field of study globally, with particular emphasis in Latin America and low- and middle-income countries. She has served as invited expert for the fields of physical activity and spatial epidemiology in several international technical meetings, panels, and research courses. Dr. Salvo was a contributing author for the recently published Second Lancet Series on Physical Activity (2016), presenting the latest science on physical activity and public health.

Appointment Term: 2018–2021

 

 

 

Edmond D. Shenassa, ScD, MA

Associate Professor, Maternal and Child Health Program

Department of Family Science

School of Public Health

University of Maryland

College Park, Maryland

 

Dr. Edmond D. Shenassa was recruited from Brown University in 2008 to become the founding director of the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) program in the department of Family Science. With a dual doctorate in Epidemiology and MCH from Harvard School of Public Health and a master’s in quantitative research methods from UCLA, Dr. Shenassa’s population-based investigations focus on social determinants (eg, income inequality, housing quality) of health over the life course. He also investigates the synergy between modifiable determinants of prenatal and perinatal health (eg, breastfeeding by smokers). Much of this work is based on data Dr. Shenassa collected as the Principal Investigator of the Rhode Island Birth cohort study, an investigation of in-utero exposure to toxins and physical, cognitive, and social development during infancy. His team recruited 650 women who were one-day post-partum and measured physical, mental, and behavioral outcomes of the mother-infant dyad on three occasions during a 15 month follow-up period. This work has been funded by Maternal and Child Health Bureaus (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Flight Attendant’s Medical Research Institute, and Environmental Protection Agency. Last year, Dr. Shenassa was selected as a Graduate Mentor of the Year by University of Maryland Graduate School. He serves as president-elect of the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health.

Appointment Term: 2017–2019

 

 

 

Mark A. Strand, PhD, MS

Professor

College of Health Professions

North Dakota State University

Fargo, North Dakota

 

Dr. Strand teaches courses in epidemiology, prevention and management of chronic illness, and global health in the Master of Public Health Program; he also teaches a course in public health for pharmacists in the School of Pharmacy. He received a CPH (Certified in Public Health) credential from the National Board of Public Health Examiners and a certificate in Diabetes Management from the International Diabetes Federation. Dr. Strand has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, with primary research in diabetes prevention and management, evaluation of the Diabetes Prevention Program, comorbid diabetes and depression, metabolic syndrome, and public health education in pharmacy. He completed a trial evaluating the efficacy of the Diabetes Prevention Program in China and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. In 2016 Dr. Strand earned the College of Health Professions Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research and in 2014 was awarded the North Dakota Rural Health Educator/Mentor of the Year. He is also a section councilor in the International Health Section of the American Public Health Association. He received a BA from Luther College, an MS from the University of Minnesota, and a PhD from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Appointment Term: 2017-2020

 

 

Mikiko Terashima, PhD, MSc

School of Planning

Healthy Populations Institute

Department of Community Health and Epidemiology

Dalhousie University

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

 

Dr. Terashima’s research focuses on methods of measuring various social and built environmental forces that create systematic inequalities in health and well-being among different groups of people across communities. Her current research investigates spatial accessibility to a multitude of services and amenities such as food outlets, green space, and primary health services, and their collective influences in health and well-being. Dr. Terashima received a PhD from Dalhousie University, MSc from the University of British Columbia, and BSc from Michigan State University.

Appointment Term: 2018–2021

 

 

 

Tung-Sung Tseng, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor

Behavioral and Community Health Sciences Department

School of Public Health

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

New Orleans, Louisiana

 

Dr. Tseng is Associate Professor in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the School of Public Health, Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. Dr. Tseng is a Certified Health Education Specialist/Master Certified Health Education Specialist and co-chairs the Ethics Committee of the Society for Public Health Education. He is a senior behavioral scientist and lead evaluator of the Tobacco Control Initiative, a multi-disciplinary program that specializes in helping tobacco users quit, in part by offering free or low-cost tobacco treatment services to all Louisiana public hospital patients and employees and the communities that the hospitals serve. He also serves as a member of Design and Analysis Core, Health Care Effectiveness, LSU Health Care Services Division and Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center. His primary research interests include tobacco control, childhood obesity, gene–environment interaction, risk behavioral patterns, health promotion interventions and evaluations, health disparities, and cancer prevention among ethnic minorities and under served populations. He holds a doctorate in community health and a master’s degree in health policy and health behavior from the Institute of Health Policy at the National Taiwan University.

Appointment Term: 2016–2020

 

 

 

Adam S. Vaughan, PhD, MPH, MS

Epidemiologist

Small Area Analysis Team

Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Atlanta, Georgia

 

Dr. Vaughan’s research focuses on geographic disparities in heart disease and stroke to better understand contributing community factors for the purpose of tailoring local interventions. He also works with the GIS Capacity Building Project, which trains state and local health departments on the use and application of geographic information systems. Dr. Vaughan received a PhD and an MPH from Emory University, an MS from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and a BE from Vanderbilt University.

Appointment Term: 2017–2019

 

 

Camille Vaughan, MD, MS

Associate Section Chief for Research in Geriatrics and Gerontology

Emory School of Medicine

Atlanta, Georgia

 

Dr. Vaughan is a geriatrician and Associate Section Chief for Research in Geriatrics and Gerontology at Emory University. Dr. Vaughan also serves as Atlanta site director for Clinical Programs in the Birmingham/Atlanta Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. Dr. Vaughan’s research focuses on optimizing the care of adults with multiple chronic conditions. Specifically, she has expertise in the study of lower urinary tract symptoms among older adults, including those living with Parkinson’s disease. She joined the PCD editorial team in October 2013.  She completed her doctor of medicine and a master’s degree in Clinical Research at Emory University.

Appointment Term: 2016–2020