American College of Epidemiology
2008 Election
Biographical Sketches and Candidate Statements

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ACE President-Elect
Vote for One (1)

Lorann Stallones, MPH, PhD, FACE is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, head of the Graduate Program in Public Health, Colorado State University, Fort Collins and Adjunct Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center.

Background: Dr. Stallones received a BA in 1974 in cultural anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara; an MPH in International Health in 1975, and a PhD in Epidemiology in 1982 at the University of Texas, School of Public She served in the Peace Corps in Micronesia. She was a Public Health Analyst at NIH, NHLBI, Epidemiology Branch. She became as Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky, Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health in 1984. Dr. Stallones moved to the Department of Environmental Health at Colorado State University in Fort Collins in 1990. In 2001, she moved from the Department of Environmental Health to the Department of Psychology. She served APHA as a member of the Epidemiology Section Council (1986-1990); on the Action Board (1989-1994); and on the Joint Policy Committee (1994). She served as Secretary-Treasurer for Society of Epidemiologic Research (1990-1993). She was a member of the Epidemiology Committee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute pre-doctoral fellowship panel (1996, 1998, 1999) and Chair of the Committee (2000, 2001). She was on the first panel convened for the Vietnam Education Foundation Fellowship Program, hosted by the National Academy of Sciences (2003). She just completed serving on the Safety and Occupational Health Study Section of NIOSH (2003-2007) and as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee to Review the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Research Program at NIOSH (2006-2007). She has served on and chaired numerous grant review panels for the CDC/ NIOSH and CDC/NCIPC. Her primary research is related agricultural safety and health. She is the Principal Investigator of an NIH/Fogarty International Center project to provide training to Chinese scholars on agricultural injury prevention research. She is Director of the Colorado Injury Control Research Center, an academic research and training program funded by CDC (1995-present).

Statement: I have been a member since 1985 and was promoted to Fellow in 1990. I have served on a number of committees within ACE: the Membership Committee (1997-2005) and was Chair from 2003-2005; the Nominations Committee (1998); the Board (2003-2006); as the first Chair of the Mentoring Committee (2006-2007) and am currently the Secretary (2006-2011). I have worked with enthusiastic colleagues to expand the vision of what membership in ACE means, to provide mentoring to junior and mid-level professionals in epidemiology, to enhance visibility of the profession, and to recognize contributions of epidemiology to the health and safety of populations. ACE has provided a forum for discussion of ethics and policies that influence our ability to conduct epidemiologic research and provided professional training in many areas through short courses. The opportunity for epidemiologists to discuss the growth and development of the profession is not available in other organizations and my hope for the future of ACE is to expand our membership to include more international colleagues so we can discuss issues that we face on a global basis including global warming, food security, exporting hazardous work to developing countries, and training of epidemiologists for the future. 

Edward J Trapido, ScD. is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, at the University of Miami School of Medicine and Director of the Global Research and Evaluation Center. Previously, he was Deputy Director for International Cancer Control in the Office of the (Deputy) Director, NCI, and Associate Director for the Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. While at NCI, Dr. Trapido managed a program of grant-supported, population-based research intended to increase the understanding of cancer etiology and prevention. He also initiated the yearly financial support for ACE, which still continues.

Background: Dr. Trapido earned an MSPH in Parasitology from the UNC-Chapel Hill, and holds ScM and ScD degrees in Epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health. He is a member of ACE’s Board of Directors, and is working on the 2008 meeting and the Strategic Plan. He was Conference Chair for ACE’s 2007 25th Anniversary meeting, and Chair of the Education Committee.

Dr. Trapido currently spends 50% of his time working with the International Agency for Research on Cancer and International Atomic Energy Agency, establishing comprehensive cancer control in developing countries. The other 50% is spent on studies of HIV, tobacco, and cancer, in Miami. He also directs the PhD Program in Epidemiology.

Statement: I believe that the strength of ACE emanates from its members and resides in their involvement. Membership has increased by reaching out to under-represented groups and by expanding our membership options. However, like many professional organizations, the proportion of members who are actively involved in ACE is not large. Furthermore, we currently have little information on how to attract new members or reengage colleagues whose membership has lapsed. The reasons for less than optimal membership may be due to cost, perceived value, or lack of time to make the commitment necessary to be active. At age 25+ years, it is time to conduct a self-study to determine how ACE can better serve our profession.

Although I would personally like to see ACE have (1) a greater Web and Annals presence, (2) an expansion of mentoring and training opportunities to help epidemiologists confront emerging issues, (3) increased international involvement and membership, (4) a stronger leadership position on policy issues, and (5) greater fiscal resources, I believe that the organization would be even stronger if its efforts were more reflective of its members’ needs, desires, and goals. If elected President, I would begin by working with our committees to survey members and non-members about their interests with respect to ACE, their involvement, and seek suggestions about making ACE more valuable to them. Next, I will involve the ACE Board to prioritize the issues identified and group them into short and long term goals. Finally, I will work with the Board, the committees, and the membership to develop and implement actions to address identified issues and concerns. Through these activities, I plan to capitalize on the historic excellence of ACE and strategically position us to better serve our members and profession.


Board of Directors

Fellow Nominees
Vote for Four (4)

Melissa M. Adams, M.P.H., Ph.D. is a Senior Research Epidemiologist of the Chronic and Infectious Disease Program at RTI, International. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of South Florida.

Background: Dr. Adams received an M.P.H. (epidemiology) from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. (epidemiology) from the University of Washington. Professionally, she has worked in government, in academia, and in the non-profit private sector. Her career started at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), where she worked for more than 20 years. Her activities at CDC included conducting epidemiologic studies in maternal and child health, consulting with state health departments, mentoring junior staff, and serving on the IRB. Subsequently, she was a Professor of Maternal and Child Health at the School of Public Health, University of Alabama, Birmingham. In 2006, she assumed her current position, where her duties include conducting perinatal research, serving on RTI’s IRB, and preparing proposals. Her professional service has included filling the presidency of the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research, conducting peer reviews of many articles submitted to professional journals, and participating on advisory committees. She is a Fellow of ACE and vice chair of ACE’s Publications Committee. She is a member of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research.

Statement: Thank you for this opportunity to ask for your support to serve on ACE’s Board. In seeking this position, I pledge to maintain the College’s tradition of enhancing epidemiologic practice. The College must continue to differentiate itself from other epidemiologic societies by filling specific needs of the profession. ACE makes key contributions in education, policy, and ethics. Much of ACE’s work in these areas is done by the Committees that address them. Nonetheless, the Board plays an important role in supporting and advising the Committees as well as approving their proposals. In the epidemiologic profession, ACE has taken a leadership position in accrediting epidemiologists by recognizing them as Fellows and Members. ACE can extend its leadership by establishing standards for continuing education in epidemiology and identifying opportunities for it. Especially for members who are not able to attend annual meetings, ACE can support the profession by offering on-line continuing education courses in epidemiologic methods. The long-standing contributions of the Policy Committee have addressed factors that influence epidemiologic practice, such as researchers’ access to personal health records. The Ethics Committee can continue to increase epidemiologists’ self-regulation of their practice. If elected to the Board, I will promote activities that support the practice of epidemiology, welcome suggestions from ACE’s members and respond to members’ concerns. Thank you for considering this statement.

Henry A. Anderson, MD has been the Chief Medical Officer and State Epidemiologist for Environmental and Occupational Disease for the Wisconsin Division of Public Health since 1980. He holds Adjunct Professorships at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health’s Department of Population Health Sciences and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies - Center for Human Studies.

Background: Dr. Anderson received his MD degree in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin Madison, was certified in 1977 by the American Board of Preventive Medicine with a sub-specialty in occupational and environmental medicine. Although his primary responsibility is providing public health service to Wisconsin residents, he has been able to maintain a highly productive research program more typical of an academic setting having authored 225 peer reviewed scientific publications.

He has served on national FACA and National Academy of Sciences committees. He first became a member of the USEPA Science Advisory Board in 1996 and since then has served as chair of the SAB Integrated Human Exposures Committee, chair of the SAB Environmental Health Committee, member of the SAB Executive committee, chair of the EC Policy and Procedures Subcommittee and currently serves as the liaison between the EPA SAB and the EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Council of which he is a member. He serves on the National Advisory Committee for Acute Exposure Guideline Levels for Hazardous Substances. He served on the NAS/IOM committees that developed the reports Injury in America and Nursing, Health & Environment and in 2007 concluded service on the IOM Committee to Evaluate Measures of Health Benefits for Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulation and the NAS Committee on Toxicity Testing and Assessment of Environmental Agents. He has served on many HHS advisory committees and most recently (2004-2007) served as the Chairperson of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Board of Scientific Councilors. He was a member of the Armed Forces Epidemiology Board and is a past president of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. He is associate editor of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

Dr Anderson is equally comfortable working with concerned citizens, elected and appointed officials and academic research scientists. He has mentored nine CDC EIS officers, numerous UW PhD and MPH students and Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) fellows. He serves on the UW MPH admissions committee and lectures in University and Medical School courses.

Statement: ACE was organized in 1979 and I became a Fellow in 1983. I served on the ACE Admissions Committee from 2003 – 2007 and was delighted to participate in the decision to broaden the membership of the College to include those with MS and MPH level training and to recruit epidemiologists serving in public health capacities whose CVs have a different flavor than those of the academic community. It was the Admissions Committee that was the implementation arm of the new ACE policy and procedures; a challenging but rewarding experience. I am honored to be nominated to serve on the ACE Board of Directors and would apply my 28 years of practical, state level public health epidemiology leadership, policy development and programmatic experience to maintain and advance ACE’s reputation and standing in the epidemiologic community.

Ahmed A. Arif, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Texas, School of Public Health at Houston.

Background: Dr. Arif completed his Medical degree from University of Karachi, Sind Medical College, Pakistan. He received his M.S. in biology from Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY and Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Texas, School of Public Health at Houston. His research has focused on respiratory diseases epidemiology particularly asthma and occupational asthma. He has received funding from NIH and NIOSH and has served as ad hoc reviewer on NIH and CDC panels. His latest research focused on determining patterns of occupational exposures and their respiratory health effects among domestic and industrial cleaners. Dr. Arif is a Fellow of ACE and currently serves as Chair of its Publications Committee.

Statement: It is an honor for being nominated for election to the Board of Directors. If elected, I will dedicate my efforts to promote goals and vision as outlined in the ACE strategic plan. I will strive to expand our membership base by reaching out to new graduates, promoting our culture of inclusiveness, and developing mentoring programs to attract new members and retain existing members. For the first time, the Publications Committee established a web-based abstract submission portal. As member of the board I will seek to provide similar e-platform to offer continuing education opportunities to our members and fellows to keep them abreast with new developments in their field. As member of the board I will continue to pursue ACE policy seeking greater collaboration with other professional societies. In addition, I will also seek to establish partnership with public health agencies.

Rick Baumgartner, PhD

Background: Dr. Baumgartner is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology and currently serves as a member of the Ethics Committee. He received his PhD from the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston in 1982. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health in the School of Public Health Information Sciences, University of Louisville. His prior faculty appointments were at Wright State University School of Medicine (1986-1990) and the University of New Mexico (UNM) School of Medicine (1991-2005). At UNM he served as Director of the Aging and Genetic Epidemiology Program, Associate Director for Science in the Institute for Public Health, and Interim Chief of the Division of Epidemiology. Dr. Baumgartner is an internationally recognized expert in body composition methodology, and has over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on the epidemiology of body composition and chronic diseases, including breast cancer, falls and fractures, and disability. He was the Principal Investigator of two long-term cohort studies: the Aging Process Study and the New Mexico Health, Eating, Activity and Lifestyle (HEAL) Study.

Statement: In the 21st century we anticipate the confluence of two unprecedented epidemics, obesity and aging, that will contribute to trailing epidemics of chronic metabolic disease and disability, as well as the potential reemergence of infectious diseases. If elected to the Board of Directors, I will help ACE to build bridges with other societies to strengthen multidisciplinary research in these priority areas with a focus on translational research and policy outcomes. I will take a leading role for the College in advocating the inclusion of more epidemiology in the NIH Roadmap Initiative, with an understanding that "translational research" includes population-based studies and interventions. I will promote professional development through workshops and interdisciplinary symposia at the annual meetings, and provide venues for multidisciplinary discussions of how to more effectively meld epidemiology with advances in bioinformatics, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. I will support aggressive policies to develop and maintain the membership base and increase the impact of Annals through the publication of multidisciplinary research in high priority areas.

Ross C. Brownson, Ph.D. is professor of epidemiology and director of the Prevention Research Center at the Saint Louis University School of Public Health in Missouri.

Background: Dr. Brownson is involved in numerous community-level interventions designed to reduce modifiable risk factors such as physical inactivity, obesity, and tobacco use. In particular, he is interested in the impacts of environmental and policy interventions on health behaviors. Dr. Brownson also conducts research on dissemination of evidence-based interventions. He is the author of six books, over 220 peer-reviewed articles, and is on numerous editorial boards. His books include Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Control, Applied Epidemiology, Handbook of Obesity PreventionCommunicating Public Health Information Effectively: A Guide for Practitioners, and Evidence-Based Public Health. Related to the last book, Dr. Brownson has led in the development of the internationally recognized training course in evidence-based public health. He is the recipient of the Award for Excellence in Prevention Research and Research Translation in Chronic Disease (2000, from CDC) and the Abraham Lilienfeld Award for outstanding contributions in teaching and mentoring (2003, from APHA). Dr. Brownson served APHA as a member of the Epidemiology Section Council and on the Joint Policy Committee. Prior to joining academe, Dr. Brownson was a division director with the Missouri Department of Health. In this capacity he wrote or co-wrote bills on tobacco access to minors, state clean indoor air, and private insurance coverage of screening mammography/Pap testing.

Statement: I am honored to be nominated as candidate for the ACE Board. The ACE is an important force in the profession of epidemiology. It has made key strides for epidemiology in several areas including ethics, data sharing, and minority health. If elected, I would bring three specific areas of expertise and interest to the Board. The first is my experience and track record linking epidemiologic research with public health practice. Too often, epidemiologic discoveries mainly reach academic audiences therefore not achieving full impact. We need to improve the linkages and interactions between epidemiologic researchers and professionals in practice settings such as state and local health departments. A second area of interest is the nexus between epidemiology and policy. This relationship is crucial to our profession and is bi-directional: policies such as confidentiality laws affect our research and our research on the etiology and prevention of disease affects policy formulation. A final area of attention involves the development of the next generation of epidemiologists. In academic settings, the current climate is challenging for new scholars seeking research funding. In practice settings, there often are not clear career paths and supportive organizational structures for professional growth. The ACE needs to find creative and effective ways of fostering our profession through mentoring and career development.

Victore M. Cardenas, M.D., M.P.H., PH.D. is Associate Professor of the Division of Epidemiology and Disease Control, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston-School of Public Health, Regional Campus in El Paso, Texas.

Background: Cardenas earned his MD degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1979. Cardenas completed a course in Epidemiology of Communicable Diseases at the School of Public Health of Mexico (1981) to join the Division of Epidemiology of Mexico's Ministry of Health where he worked as a field epidemiologist (1982-1987). He was a trainee of Mexico's Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), and shared in one of Mexico's greatest public health accomplishments investigating the last outbreak of paralytic poliomyelitis in the country that led to the adoption of "mop-up" vaccination of hard to reach areas. Afterwards, he became a faculty of the (Mexican) National Institute of Public Health where he conducted planned research. He pursued a more formal education attending Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University where he completed a Master in Public Health (1990) and a PhD degree in Epidemiology (1995). He then served as CDC consultant to the (Colombian) National Institute of Health (1994-1996), where he contributed to establish the Applied Epidemiology Service, the Colombian FETP. Since 1997, he has been a faculty member of the Division of Epidemiology and Disease Control at the University of Texas-School of Public Health at the Regional Campus in El Paso, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007. Dr. Cardenas's currently studies the epidemiology of H. pylori -related diseases (atrophic gastritis, stomach cancer, possibly iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia), conditions that have eradication potential. He is a member of APHA, SER, and IEA and served from 1998-2001 as founding Executive Director of Training in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network, a non-governmental organization that supports FETPs around the world.

Statement: I am very pleased to be nominated to serve in its Board of Directors. As an ACE board member I would like to contribute to strengthen the role of the College in global health. I believe that the ACE could increase the level of collaboration with other epidemiologic societies. To my mind, great disparities represent great opportunities for change through targeted public health interventions, and there are plenty of those opportunities around the world and the United States. I believe there should be stronger ties between the membership in academic discipline and those in epidemiologic practice positions to add and multiply the efforts of our community of epidemiologists. ACE has come a long way in establishing codes of professional epidemiologic conduct and practice, providing opportunities for exchange of knowledge, supporting novel ideas, recognizing leadership, enhancing collaborations with different associations, and advocating for policies and actions that improve the profession. With a better understanding and commitment to the mission, goals, and objectives of ACE, I look forward to serve with fellow and Board members.

Craig Newschaffer, PhD is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Drexel University School of Public Health.

Background: Dr. Newschaffer joined the Drexel faculty in 2006 coming from the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he was on faculty for seven years. At JHSPH, Dr. Newschaffer founded and directed the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Epidemiology. His principal research area today remains autism epidemiology but he also has past experience working more broadly in chronic disease epidemiology – including breast and prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease. He is now a principal investigator on three major autism initiatives - a multistate effort to track autism prevalence, a multisite retrospective study of autism risk factors, and a multisite high-risk pregnancy prospective cohort study focused on the detection of prenatal autism risk factors. Dr. Newschaffer has also recently collaborated internationally to explore approaches for conducting epidemiologic research on autism in China. He is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology and a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Autism Research and Developmental Epidemiology. He is a member of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, the American Public Health Association, and the International Society for Autism Research. He has served on the Governing Board of the Epidemiology Section of APHA and has been appointed to numerous government, professional society, and academic advisory panels. He retains an appointment as an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins.

Statement: Over this past year we have seen continued mass media attention devoted to the challenges faced by observational epidemiology. The College is well-positioned to promote informed, balanced communication on the workings of epidemiologic research to the general public. Strategies to be considered include both the proactive (e.g., compilation and publicity around annual accomplishments in the field) and the reactive (e.g., coordinated op-ed campaigns). This year has also seen ongoing developments in epidemiology education and training. As distance education proliferates, the College should play a role promoting quality in on-line epidemiology instruction. Several other areas that have been recent focal points for the College are also deserving of continued attention. Integration of students into professional societies needs to develop further, initiatives promoting thoughtful mentoring of junior colleagues must be cultivated, and the College’s annual meeting has to be an invigorating experience for attendees. Further, as our collective experience with data access under HIPAA and various data sharing arrangements grows, existing guidelines and policies around key data issues should be sharpened. And, finally, as epidemiology continues its analyses of data rich in variables ranging from the contextual to the “-omic,” the College needs to promote intellectual interchange with other scientific disciplines also grappling with analogous dense and complex data sets. If elected to the Board my energies would go toward helping the College move further in these areas.

Deborah (Debbie) Winn, Ph.D. is the Acting Associate Director of the Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program, the National Cancer Institute’s extramural epidemiology program in Rockville, Maryland. She describes her job as having two key parts: one is to work directly with individual investigators to provide them with the best possible options, opportunities, tools and advice to obtain funding for promising and important epidemiologic studies in cancer. The second part is to move the field of cancer epidemiology forward through identifying research opportunities and gaps and finding and directing resources and attention to them.

Background: With extensive experience in epidemiologic research and numerous publications primarily in cancer epidemiology and oral epidemiology, she has increasingly focused on the challenges of large-scale, transdisciplinary science, particularly as it relates to cancer epidemiology. For example, she has played critical roles in NCI’s bioinformatics efforts in population sciences and cancer control and in think tanks and initiatives to move findings from cancer epidemiology into public health practice and from basic biology to epidemiology. She has been a key spokesperson for the Institute on epidemiologic topics of high congressional and public interest, for example, the role of environmental factors in the etiology of breast cancer.

Dr. Winn received her Ph.D. in epidemiology from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. After a fellowship at NCI, she worked at the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For 5 of her 7 years there, she was the Deputy Director of the Division of Health Interview Statistics, with broad responsibilities for planning, implementing, and analyzing National Health Interview Surveys. Subsequently she was a Branch Chief in the intramural oral epidemiology program at the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research before returning joining the NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences in 2000.

In 2006, Dr. Winn received the H. A. Tyroler Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she has received of a number NIH Group and U.S. Public Health Service Awards.

Statement: Areas I consider to be particularly important for the Board to focus on include generating programs to continuously develop and improve our scientific, technical and leadership skills to conduct epidemiologic research in an ever rapidly changing environment. We need to take even better advantage of our already considerable abilities to integrate knowledge across disciplines as diverse as bioinformatics, statistics, genomics, basic biology, medicine, and public health. We need to find better ways to work effectively and collaboratively with ever increasing numbers of scientists across the globe and appropriately reward researchers for scientific accomplishments in settings where team science is the norm and data is shared widely. And finally ACE needs to continue to foster and be an important forum to discussions on policies and guidelines to facilitate our science and benefit public health. These are exciting times, and I am eager to contribute as a member of the Board.


Member Nominees
Vote for One (1)

Diana M. Bensyl, PhD, MA, BA is a Senior Epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a Commander in the US Public Health Service. Dr. Bensyl is currently the co-chair of the ACE Education Committee. She has helped with the planning of several ACE Annual Meetings including organizing the roundtable sessions for the 2007 meeting and the combined SER/ACE Workshops for 2008.

Background: Dr. Bensyl earned her BA and MA from Baylor University. She received a PhD in Preventive Medicine and Community Health with a specialization in Sociomedical Sciences from the University of Texas Medical Branch. She joined CDC in 1999 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer assigned to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Alaska Field Station. She also served as Adjunct Faculty for Epidemiology at the School of Nursing, University of Alaska, Anchorage. In 2002, she transferred to CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Reproductive Health in Atlanta, Georgia. In February 2005, Dr. Bensyl accepted a position with the Office of Workforce and Career Development, Career Development Division, EIS Field Assignments Branch as an EIS Field Supervisor where she trains, supervises, mentors, and supports CDC's EIS Officers assigned to state and local health departments. She currently supervises assignees in Alaska, California, Utah, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Statement: I am honored to be nominated to the Board of Directors of the American College of Epidemiology. I attended my first ACE annual meeting as a graduate student. The rapport among the "seasoned" epidemiologists was amazing to see. Listening to casual conversations where epi ideas were exchanged, inspired, and put to rest made me eager to be a part of ACE. As a board member, I would like to see ACE meet the goals in its strategic plan for 1) advocating for policies and actions that enhance the science and practice of epidemiology and 2) promoting the professional development of epidemiologists through educational initiatives. I will use my organizational skills and knowledge from working in a training program to make ACE a strong resource for new and experienced epidemiologists. I will ensure that the annual meeting and partnerships with other groups represent what epidemiologists at varying levels need. I will also use my skills in training new epidemiologists to create useful roundtables, workshops, and scientific sessions at the annual meeting to help promote professional development. Finally, I will support the initiatives coming from the Executive Committee and help move them forward within the membership and the epidemiologic community.


Melissa Perry, ScD, MHS is Associate Professor of Occupational Epidemiology in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Background: Dr. Perry received Master of Health Science and Doctor of Science degrees from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Over the past fifteen years she has conducted epidemiology and public health promotion studies targeting a number of health endpoints including occupational injury and disease. Her lab is currently conducting studies on the genotoxic and hormone disrupting properties of occupational and environmental pesticide exposures and she is collaborating on pesticides studies in South Africa, Tanzania, and China. She teaches public health graduate courses at Harvard in environmental health and injury epidemiology. She has been a member of ACE for almost a decade and a membership committee member since 2000, on which she currently serves as co-chair.

Statement: The coming few years hold promise for political change that will undoubtedly impact the Nation's health services, research, and policy. We as epidemiologists are poised to take advantage of this time of change by advancing the prominence of our profession as an integral part of improving the public's health. As a member of the ACE Board of Directors:

  • First, I will work to promote ACE's visibility nationally. Increased awareness of ACE is needed among the different sectors of the Department of Health and Human Services because their mission is highly dependent on the effective practice of epidemiology. Channels of communication with these agencies can be opened by ensuring ACE presence at federal health science meetings and via targeted electronic communication. I will also reach out to federal epidemiologists to recruit them as new members to the College as part of our membership recruitment efforts.
  • Second, I will work to ensure that ACE is present and visible in health care reform initiatives forthcoming from a new political administration so we can advocate for epidemiologic research becoming a critical part of the national health strategy. Keeping our members informed of these initiatives will be a first priority for achieving our visibility.
  • Third, I will continue reaching out to young and aspiring epidemiologists in training who are in need of professional networking opportunities and quality mentoring. Our annual meeting is an excellent opportunity to formally connect Associate Members with Members and Fellows and each year I will work with meeting planners to ensure that these are quality opportunities for both trainees and mentors.

 

Suggestion: As an aide you may want to print a copy of the biographical sketches and candidate statements to use when casting your ballot. To do so click here for a printer-friendly copy.

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