ACE 2014 Election Results

                                                                 ACE President-Elect
                                                                         
                                                             
Jonine Bernstein, MS, PhD, FACE, is an Attending Epidemiologist (equivalent to Full Professor) in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York City and Co-Leader of the MSK Survivorship, Outcomes and Risk Program.
Background: Dr. Bernstein holds a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Yale University, an M.S. in Applied Biometry from the University of Southern California, and an A.B. from Brown University. Before MSK, she was Deputy Director, Division of Epidemiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Bernstein’s primary research focus is on breast cancer risk and progression identifying those at highest risk because of gene carrier status, environmental exposures, or a combination of both. She also focuses on developing and validating biomarkers of breast cancer. Dr. Bernstein is the Principal Investigator of the 27-center Women’s Environmental Cancer Radiation and Epidemiologic (WECARE) study and the Imaging and Epidemiology (IMAGinE) study. Dr. Bernstein has served as a regular member on national cancer and NIH peer review committees, and currently is a member of the NCI Board of Scientific Counselors, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Advisory Board, the American Association of Cancer Research Molecular Epidemiology Working Group Steering Committee, and on the Organizing Committees for the 2012 and 2014 American Statistical Association Conference on Radiation and Health (now RRS/CRH). She is also a member of the American Epidemiology Society.

Dr. Bernstein joined ACE in 1997 and became a Fellow in 2005. She served as a member, and then Chair, of the ACE Membership Development Committee (2002-2008), as a member on the 2013 Annual Meeting Program Committee, and currently a second term on the ACE Board of Directors (first-term 2006-2009). In 2012, she received the ACE's Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Bernstein also co-chaired the 3rd North American Congress of Epidemiology in June 2011, attended by more than 1,600 epidemiologists from 37 countries.

Statement: It would be a great honor and privilege to serve as President of ACE. As we celebrate our 35th year, ACE remains a strong force promoting the practices and policies that impact our profession and providing important educational opportunities for our membership. As a long-standing member, I know first-hand the enthusiasm and intensity our ACE colleagues bring to this important work, and I am committed to advancing these vital interests. To achieve our aims and to shape population health, we must increase scientific collaboration and translational research by integrating innovative epidemiologic methods reaching across the discipline and into the field. Given the diversity and breadth of our membership, ACE can play a pivotal role in engaging epidemiologists across specialties in every aspect of our work. While our annual meetings offer exciting opportunities to discuss cutting-edge issues, we also need to engage newer epidemiologists and encourage them to become active, long-time ACE members through mentoring initiatives fostering professional and educational opportunities. Let’s build on our past success, promote progressive outstanding epidemiologic research to advance population health, and “make epidemiology more consequential.” And let's always strive as an organization to keep politics out of science and to protect the integrity of epidemiologic research. If elected, I will work to promote the core mission of ACE, implement the strategies and goals of our revised strategic plan, and serve the expanding needs of our membership.


                                                                                 Board of Directors
                                                                             
Meilissa Bondy, MS, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, Associate Director of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at the Dan L. Duncan Cancer at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Background: Dr. Bondy received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas School of Public Health and continued her career at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer.  She holds the Dan L. Duncan Professorship and is a McNair Medical Institute Scholar. Her research focus is genetic and molecular epidemiology, and she is at the forefront of developing innovative ways to assess the roles of heredity and genetic susceptibility in the etiology of cancer, primarily brain and breast cancers. She leads the largest multi-national consortium (GLIOGENE) that focuses on familial and sporadic glioma patients. Dr. Bondy also has a research activity in breast cancer (BC) with an active collaboration with the Breast Cancer Program to study molecular predictors of survival after BC treatment and BC health disparities. Dr. Bondy is an established leader within the cancer prevention research community and served as President of the American Society for Preventive Oncology, and board member of many professional organizations. She is a Susan G. Komen for the Cure Scholar, and was a founding member of the Brain Tumor Epidemiology Consortium.  She has served on numerous NIH advisory committees, ad hoc review committees for NIH, American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and Department of Defense, and as an advisor to several Cancer Centers.

Statement:  It is a privilege and honor to be nominated as a candidate for the ACE Board of Directors.  I have been an ACE member for more than 2 decades, and served on the board for one term. I was chair of the Publications Committee and worked with the committee and the Editor of the Journal to improve its impact factor, and served as a liaison between the journal and the board. I also served on the Policy Committee during my Board Tenure.  If elected to the board I would like to work with promoting the college in mentoring junior epidemiologists and fostering their growth and the challenges they face in their careers.

James G. Gurney, Ph.D. FACE, is the Associate Dean, Director of Research, and Hardin Endowed Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Memphis School of Public Health. He also is a Clinical Affiliate Member at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis TN.

Background:  Dr. Gurney received his M.S.W, M.S., and Ph.D., the latter two in epidemiology, from the University of Washington in Seattle. He trained at both the Injury Prevention and Research Center and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center during his graduate education at UW. The focus of his work over the past 20 years has been on chronic disease outcomes in children and adolescents. In particular, Dr. Gurney has extensive experience studying the treatment-related medical and psychosocial effects of childhood cancer among long-term survivors.

Statement:  Each year I look forward to the ACE annual meeting. It’s the one conference I attend where I don’t have to rush from one meeting room to another, negotiating huge throngs of people. The annual meeting, with its thematic approach, is relaxing, informative, and, reflecting the ACE organization, personal. The personal quality of ACE, and the relationships I have developed and maintained over the years through my involvement, is what I most enjoy. I’ve been part of ACE since I was a new career epidemiologist, which means for many years. My participation has included being a member, vice chair, and chair of the publications committee. As an editorial board member and associate editor of the Annals of Epidemiology, our organization’s scientific journal, I served as a liaison between the Annals and ACE through my participation in the publications committee. Later I was a member of the ACE mentoring committee and most recently served on the nominations committee. I also was a member of the Board of Directors for ACE from 2007-2010, spanning three ACE presidents. One of the unique aspects of ACE is the opportunity to actively and meaningfully participate in the governance and priorities of the organization, which is very important to the development and maturation of our profession as epidemiologists. For these reasons I was delighted to be asked to serve again on the ACE Board.

Russell S. Kirby, PhD, MS, FACE is Distinguished University Professor and Marrell Endowed Chair, Department of Community and Family Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida.

Background: Dr. Russell Kirby joined the University of South Florida College of Public Health as professor and Marrell endowed chair in July 2008, following six years as professor and vice chair of Maternal and Child Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  He is a perinatal and pediatric epidemiologist trained in the social sciences, with a PhD in human geography (Wisconsin, 1981) and MS in preventive medicine-epidemiology (Wisconsin, 1991).  Dr. Kirby was a health statistician for the states of Wisconsin and Arkansas (1981-1991), and on the faculties of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Milwaukee Clinical Campus, University of Wisconsin Medical School.  He was elected Fellow in the American College of Epidemiology in 1996, was named Outstanding Professor of the Year by students in the College of Public Health at USF for 2013.  In 2014 Dr. Kirby was named University Distinguished Professor at USF.  Dr. Kirby has served as president of three national professional organizations, the National Birth Defects Prevention Network, the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research, and the Association of Teachers of Maternal and Child Health.  He is the chair of the planning committee for the 2016 Epidemiology Congress of the Americas, which will be held in June 2016 in Miami, FL.   Dr. Kirby has co-authored one book, and authored more than 230 peer-reviewed articles in the field of maternal and child health, with more than 400 different co-authors.  He actively participates in the editorial process as a peer reviewer or editorial board member for numerous journals, including Annals of Epidemiology, and service as editor (2002-7) and coeditor (2008-present) for the National Birth Defects Prevention Network annual report, published as an issue of Birth Defects Research, Part A and as co-editor of an annual themed issue of Journal of Registry Management (2010-present).

Statement:  I am honored to be nominated as for the ACE Board of Directors.  I have been a member of ACE for 20 years, and fully support the purposes and mission of this important organization.  ACE plays an important role in the profession of epidemiology and I will work to strengthen its visibility and vitality. I bring considerable experience as a board member and leader of numerous professional organizations, and have implemented strategic planning processes to provide roadmaps to guide their future directions.
                                                                     
Claudia A. Kozinetz, PhD, MPH is a Professor of Epidemiology and currently in a professional transition from Head of Epidemiology, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas to Chair, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University.  She has been a member of ACE since 1996.

Background:  Dr. Kozinetz received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of Texas-Houston, School of Public Health, an MPH from the University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, and a BA from Mount Holyoke College.  Dr. Kozinetz’ academic career, primarily at a college of medicine, has focused on incorporating epidemiologic principles and methods into basic, clinical and translational research.  Collaborating with medical students, residents, fellows and faculty, Dr. Kozinetz directed efforts in mentoring and training in the epidemiology of child health and HIV/AIDS.  Her research spanned child neurologic conditions, implementing the first population-based study of the incidence and prevalence of Rett syndrome in North America, to childhood infectious diseases, directing Data Management and Analysis for the Baylor Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Unit (PACTU), to general child health, serving as Principal Investigator of the Harris County Hospitals and Universities National Children’s Study-Study Center.  Dr. Kozinetz has participated on numerous federal research review committees, served as Assistant Editor, Pediatrics, and held several leadership positions with epidemiology organizations (Chair, 2013 Program Committee, ACE; President, SPER; and Chair, Epidemiology Section, APHA).

Statement:  I am truly honored to be nominated for a position on the American College of Epidemiology Board of Directors.  If elected to the Board, I will dedicate my efforts to support and promote the ACE Strategic Plan and goals.  ACE’s annual meetings have always prompted me to reflect on the profession of epidemiology, i.e., most recently, “Innovation in Epidemiology” and “Making Epidemiology More Consequential”.  If elected, I will champion these themes among ACE’s various programs and efforts.  Using these issues as a platform, ACE can remain relevant to both junior and senior epidemiologists as we adopt creative efforts to investigate and apply proven, evidence-based public health interventions in populations experiencing health disparities, US and globally.