Emergency Events: Natural Disasters and Emerging Diseases Interrupt Business Continuity and Requiring Scientifically-Sound Response to Reassure Clients and Staff

Expertise

Summary  

Over 20 years of experience leading interdisciplinary teams across multiple sectors (private, public, higher education) on issues related to public health preparedness, response, and recovery from disasters, with a focus on mitigating health impacts through scientific research, workforce development, and community engagement. Highly responsive problem solver accustomed to working under conditions of high uncertainty.

• Training rapid response teams to respond to emerging pathogens in the U.S. and globally.
• Field epidemiology methods used in outbreak investigations.
• Planning and preparing for disasters and complex emergencies and their impacts.
• Pandemic influenza and Continuity of Operations planning.
• Measuring the health impacts of disasters, including impacts on healthcare infrastructure and delivery systems.
• Quantifying the pace and quality of post-disaster recovery.
• Assessing risks related to placement of assets, disaster damages, and continuity of operations.
• Collection, analysis, and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative data.
• Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER).

Experience

Undisclosed University, Professor and Founding Director, Present

• Founding Director of newest academic program in the University’s College of Health Sciences
• Responsible for all aspects of program development, including regulatory, personnel, budgeting
• Member of the Core Faculty, Disaster Research Center

Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, Associate Professor and Department Head, 2014 - 2018                      

• Program Lead, Disaster Research Response (DR2) Program, Texas OneGulf Center of Excellece
• Lead, Institute for Sustainable Communities, Health and Environment Program
• Member of the Graduate Faculty in Toxicology and Lead for Community Engagement, Superfund Research Program
• Fellow, Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 2003 - 2013

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, 2009 - 2013            

• Responsible for managing global, federal, and state grants and contracts of more than $30 million
• Member of the Faculty Advisory Committee, Institute for the Environment

Director of Research and Evaluation, NC Institute for Public Health, 2009 - 2013

Associate Director, Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center, 2008 - 2013

Deputy Director, NC Center for Public Health Preparedness, 2003 - 2013

EDUCATOR

Texas A&M

• Instructor for Epidemiologic Methods I (PHEB)
• Instructor for Methods in Field Epidemiology (PHEB)
• Instructor for MPH / DrPH Practicum (PHEB

UNC -Chapel Hill

• Co-instructor for Fundamentals of Public Health Surveillance (EPID) 
• Co-instructor for Methods in Field Epidemiology (EPID)

University of Delaware

• Instructor for Epide
• miologic Methods I (EPID)
• Instructor for Methods in Field Epidemiology (EPID)
• Instructor for MPH Practicum (HLTH)

Honors & Publications

Credentials 

• CASPER and Rapid Needs Assessment using Global Positioning and Geographic Information Systems
• Proficient in SAS and EpiInfo
• Familiarity with STATA and Sigma Plot
• Extensive international work in developing countries in Asia, Central America and the Western Pacific
• Proficient in Course Management Systems, including Canvas, Sakai, Blackboard, WebCT and Moodle
• Certification in DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) and SCID (Systematic Curriculum and Instructional Development) from the Center of Education and Training at Ohio State University

Languages

• Proficient in Spanish

Academic and Professional Affiliations 

• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Planning Committee on Exploring Best Practices in Integration of Public Health and Human Services Service Delivery and Assessment Following Large Scale Disasters
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Preparedness and Response, Board of Scientific Counselors
• American Public Health Association, Publications Board
• American College of Epidemiology

Doctoral Advisees (University of Delaware)

• Abby Health (Epidemiology) -  Chair
• Colton Strickland (Epidemiology) -  Chair
• Hadi A.L. Ruwaithi (Disaster Science & Management) 
• Awele Maduka Ezeh (Disaster Science & Management) 
• Francisco Sarmiento (Disaster Science & Management) 
• Ngozi Dom-Chima (Medical and Molecular Science)

Expert Committees - National

• Member, National Institute of Environmental  Health Sciences, Disaster Research Response (DR2) Working Group
• Member, American Geophysical Union Geohealth Section Early Career Development Committee
• Member, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, Maternal an d Child Health Emergency Preparedness
•  Epidemiology Capacity Assessment Workgroup
• Member, CDC Foundation and National Network of Public Health Institutes, Hurricane Response  Coordinating Committee
• Member, National Science Foundation, Scoping Workshop on Coastlines and People (CoPe)
• Member, ESRI Workgroup on Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response
• Member, Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, Council on Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy

Programs

• Member, Planning Committee, SeaGrant Oil Spill Science Health Summit
• Member, National Science Foundation, Interdisciplinary Methods of Disaster Research
• Panelist, National Academy of Sciences , Coastal Community Resilience
• Member, Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, Science Advisory Guide for Emergencies  (SAGE)
• Member, National Institute of Environmental  Health Sciences,  Best Practices Working Group for the Development of Special Considerations for IRB Review of Disaster and Emergency Related Public Health Research
• Member Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Preparedness and Response and Health Studies Branch, Development of a Disaster Epidemiology Online Course for Academia
• Member, National Health Security Preparedness Index Model Design Workgroup, Robert Wood

Johnson Foundation

• Panelist, National Academy of Sciences GULF Research Program, Community Resilience and
• Health,, (Workshop Report, Opportunities for the Gulf Research Program: Community Resilience and Health; The gulf—research-program-community-resilience-and-health)
• Member, Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) Public Health Emergency

Preparedness Subcommittee

• Member, Working Group on Emergency Preparedness and Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Reproductive Health
• Member, CDC Disaster Epidemiology Community  of Practice Committee
• Member, CDC Public Health Advisory group for public health response to Deepwater Horizon oil

Spill

• Member, Disaster Epidemiology Committee, CSTE
• Co-Chair, CDC Centers for Public Health Preparedness exemplar group in distance education

Disaster Response

• Delphi Participant, Exploration of the Diverse Opinions around the Long-Term Impacts of
• Flooding on Health, Poverty, and Inequity in Houston
• Reviewer, Risk Assessment, Mapping, and Planning (RAMP) Tool, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Los Angeles County
• Member and Session Convener, State of the Gulf of Mexico One Gulf Summit
• Reviewer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reproductive Health in Emergency
• Preparedness and Response online course
• Principal Investigator, North Carolina post-Irene risk perception and evacuation assessment
• Supervisor and Volunteer, Mississippi post -Katrina health status assessment and service project
• Supervisor and Volunteer, NC Division of Public Health rapid needs assessment after Hurricane
• Wilma, Broward and Hendry County, FL
• Supervisor and Volunteer, NC Division of Public Health rapid needs assessment after Hurricane Isabel, NC

Awards

• Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching, Association of Former Students, Texas A&M
• Team Epi Aid Service Award, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
• IMPACT Award, for research that provides benefit to the citizens of North Carolina
• Service in Action Award, for contribution to community preparedness and disaster management
• Office of the Provost, Carolina Center for Public Service Award

Publications and Patents

• Author and Co-Author of peer reviewed medical journals, periodicals, grants, text books, and presentations.

Education

• Ph.D.          Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
• M.P.H.        Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
• B.S.            Economics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC