Visit us at the USAID Global Health Fellows Program II booth: #1109
PHI Lead Presenters
PHI's staff are visionary leaders focusing on the ideas and programs positioned to transform health.
Meet some of our lead authors presenting at this year's APHA meeting.
CHERYL CHERPITEL, DrPH
Senior Scientist, Alcohol Research Group
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Age at immigration and substance use and problems among males and females at the U.S.-Mexico border (Presentation)
Cherpitel's expertise includes the epidemiology of alcohol and casualties and violence-related injuries in emergency room (ER) populations and general population with a special focus on Mexican-origin populations; validity of self-reported alcohol consumption based on breathalyzer readings; health services utilization; risk taking and risk curve analysis of alcohol and injuries; drinking patterns and problems among primary care populations; and screening for alcohol problems.
BARBARA COHN, PhD
Director, Child Health and Development Studies
Parental loss in childhood and daughter’s breast cancer in the Child Health and Development Studies (Poster)
Cohn is the Director of the Child Health and Development Studies. Professionally, Cohn has been studying the early life determinants of women's and men's health across the lifespan. She has studied environmental predictors of fertility and cancer, the relationship of pregnancy to health across the life-span including cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Cohn is passionate about the link between sound research and strategies to improve public health. Cohn has dedicated her scientific career to producing needed information for development of better policies and programs, believing that good intentions are insufficient to bring about meaningful improvements to health.
TRACY DELANEY, PhD, RD
Executive Director, Public Health Alliance of Southern California
Delaney is founding director of the Public Health Alliance of Southern California - a regional coalition of nine local health departments whose members have statutory responsibility for the health of 60% of California’s population. Her work advances population health and equity through multi-sector initiatives addressing policy, systems and environmental change. She has spearheaded multidisciplinary projects integrating land use and transportation, food systems, climate and water resources and community equity indicators. She holds a doctorate in Nutrition from University of California, Davis, and is a registered dietician and a certified Health Fitness Director with the American College of Sports Medicine.
DAVID GODSTED, MA
Deputy Program Director, USAID Global Health Fellows Program II
Envisioning the Future of the Global Health Professional (Presentation)
Godsted has over 20 years of successful experience managing human, financial, and material resources. As Deputy Director for the USAID Global Fellows Health Program II, Godsted applies his expertise in solving human resource problems and supporting individual performance to lead program efforts in Recruitment, Performance Management, and Professional and Career Development.
He also has extensive experience recruiting international development professionals, including his recent role as an Executive Director at the International Rescue Committee, where he led a multicultural staff of 40. Godsted’s previous roles also include AMIDEAST’s Country Director in Egypt and Peace Corps Volunteer in Yemen.
JULIA CAPLAN, MPH, MPP
Program Director, California Health in All Policies Task Force
Caplan is the Program Director for the California Health in All Policies Task Force, which brings together over twenty state agencies, departments, and offices to build collaborative partnerships and incorporate health, equity, and environmental sustainability considerations into decision-making and government operations across policy areas as diverse as transportation, land use, education, agriculture, and social services.
Caplan has twenty years’ experience in community building, social change, management, and public policy leadership, and holds masters’ degrees in public policy and public health from the University of California, Berkeley.
ALISON CHOPEL, MPH, DrPH
Director, California Adolescent Health Collaborative
Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth’s Perspectives on their Strengths and Health Needs: A Photovoice Project (Presentation)
Chopel is the Director of the California Adolescent Health Collaborative, a program of the Public Health Institute, where she directs both Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) studies and evidence-based interventions. She completed her BA in International Affairs and Anthropology, her MPH in Health and Social Behavior, and her DrPH with concentrations in community-based participatory research, social epidemiological theories, and qualitative methodology. She is the PI on CBPR studies of e-cigarette marketing to adolescents, social and structural factors impacting breastfeeding among adolescent mothers, and the H-REP (Healthy Relationships and Economic Pathways) and Project PARTNER (Partnering with Adolescents to Ready the Newest Engaged Researchers) Program Director.
WON KIM COOK, PhD
Associate Scientist, Alcohol Research Group
Cook's expertise includes the influence of cultural conditions and socioeconomic disadvantage on Asian-American, adolescent, and young adult health, including alcohol use, obesity/overweight, and health care access; effects of alcohol policies on drinking; and community-based participatory research to improve health of disadvantaged populations.
AMY DELISIO, MPH, RD
Deputy Director, Center for Wellness and Nutrition
DeLisio is currently the Deputy Director at the PHI Center for Wellness and Nutrition with over twelve years of experience working on a broad variety of nutrition and obesity prevention programs serving vulnerable populations through federal, state and locally-funded interventions. DeLisio has worked with retailers across California and the country to reach low resource consumers using a variety of strategies, including marketing and promotion, food demonstrations, corner store makeovers, and healthy check-out lanes and prominent displays. DeLisio is a Registered Dietitian with a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
THOMAS GREENFIELD, PhD
Senior Scientist & Scientific Director, Alcohol Research Group
Are U.S. state alcohol policies linked to individuals' later reports of secondhand drinking harms? (Presentation)
Prevalence and burden of harms from other people's drinking in the U.S. (Presentation)
Greenfield's expertise includes the epidemiology of alcohol use and problems, alcohol policy studies, alcohol-related problem and consumption measurement, drinking patterns and mortality, cultural and ethnic variations in drinking behavior; US and cross-national population studies; services research and consumer satisfaction; and alcohol’s harm to others.
RACHEL HORST
PHI Fellow at The Health Trust​
Horst is a PHI Fellow based at The Health Trust in San Jose, CA, where she is responsible for implementing the organization's food access strategy for vulnerable populations in Santa Clara County. Prior to PHI, Rachel researched the Los Angeles food system as a fellow at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council and conducted research on urban agriculture for Dr. William McCarthy at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Before receiving her MPP from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Rachel worked at UN Women and the German Consulate in New York as a communications adviser and speechwriter.
MARIKO IWAMOTO, MA
Project Director, Health Intervention Projects for Underserved Populations
Iwamoto has a Master’s degree in social psychology and works as a Project Director at the Public Health Institute, Health Intervention Projects for Underserved Populations. She has been overseeing multiple community-based HIV and substance abuse intervention projects targeting ethnic minorities and LGBTQ populations in US and Asian counties. For the past 10 years, she has been working for the underserved populations to promote their health and well-being.
DOUGLAS JUTTE, MD, MPH
Executive Director, Build Healthy Places Network
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Increasing economic opportunities and equity through community development
(Presentation Moderator)
Jutte is Executive Director of the Build Healthy Places Network, a national organization that catalyzes and supports collaboration across the community development and health sectors. Jutte has been a leader in the Federal Reserve Bank and RWJ Foundation’s Healthy Communities Initiative, which has convened over 30 meetings around the country since 2010 bringing together professionals from across sectors to enhance community health impact, encourage improved outcomes measurement, and increase public and private investment in community development efforts.
DANIEL MADRIGAL, MPH
Health Educator, California Environmental Health Tracking Program
Madrigal is a health educator with the California Environmental Health Tracking Program, where he works to make environmental health information accessible and practical for the residents of California.
His interests include immigration, environmental justice, community engaged research, and developing a diverse public health workforce.
NEIL MAIZLISH, PhD, MPH
Senior Research Scientist
Center for Climate Change & Health and the Public Health Alliance of Southern California
Maizlish is an epidemiologist with over 25 years of experience in quantitative research methods, statistics, and health informatics in local and state government, academia, community clinics, unions, and the private sector.
He is currently a senior Research Scientist at the Center for Climate Change and Health and the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, projects of the Public Health Institute.
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PAMELA MEJIA, MPH, MS
Senior Media Researcher, Berkeley Media Studies Group
Tweets, posts and health claims: A preliminary analysis of social media marketing of infant formula (Presentation)
Mejia leads qualitative and quantitative analyses of how the media portrays public health and social justice issues, including sexual and family violence, teen dating violence, childhood trauma, community violence prevention, food marketing to children, sugary drink regulation, and tobacco control. Her research on these and other issues has appeared in the American Journal of Public Health, Critical Public Health, and the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. She holds a bachelor's degree in human nutrition from Washington State University, as well as master's degrees in biochemistry and public health from the University of California at Berkeley.
SUSANNA MOORE, MA
Project Manager, GOJoven
GOJoven: Scaling up a unique model of youth leadership development to improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health (Poster)
Moore serves as Project Manager for PHI's Youth Leadership in Sexual and Reproductive Health Program (GOJoven). She manages and oversees all aspects of GOJoven’s activities, including grantmaking and technical assistance to grantee organizations in Mexico and Central America. She also serves as PHI’s Deputy Chair for the Implementing Best Practices in Family Planning and Reproductive Health (IBP) Initiative, in partnership with WHO, UNFPA and USAID.
TOORU NEMOTO, PhD
Research Program Director, PHI
Nemoto oversees a number of substance abuse and HIV prevention studies and programs for stigmatized and neglected populations, such as Asian and Pacific Islander men who have sex with men, transgender people and sex workers. His research focuses on the social and cultural contexts of substance use and HIV-related risk behaviors as well as gender and sexual identity.
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Nemoto was associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. A standing ad hoc review member for the National Institutes of Health's study sections, he was co-chair for the National Institute on Drug Abuse Asian American and Pacific Islander Workgroup from its inception in 1999 until 2006.
CARMEN NEVAREZ, MD, MPH
Director, Center for Health Leadership & Practice
PHI Vice President for External Relations
Is the US Embargo Against Cuba Harming our Health? (Presentation)
Health Equity in Today’s Political and Social Reality: Challenges Facing Latino Communities (Presentation)
Nevarez is PHI's Vice President for External Relations and Preventive Medicine Advisor and the Director of the Center for Health Leadership and Practice.
Nevarez has also served in numerous appointed and elected leadership positions. She has served as Director of Health and Human Services Department and Health Officer for the City of Berkeley, medical director of La Clinica de la Raza, an Oakland-based Federally Qualified Health Center, and medical director of the San Diego based Beach Area Community Clinic. She also was elected President of the American Public Health Association in 2009.
LAURA NIXON, MPH
Media Researcher, Berkeley Media Studies Group
Nixon analyzes media coverage of public health issues and industry marketing practices for Berkeley Media Studies Group. Her areas of expertise include childhood obesity prevention, sexual and reproductive health, childhood trauma, and violence prevention. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Pomona College, and a master’s degree in public health from UC Berkeley.
LINDA RUDOLPH, MD, MPH
Director
Center for Climate Change & Health
Health Sector Response to Climate Change in the U.S. (Presentation)
Mobilizing the Health Sector to Fight Climate Change (Presentation)
Rudolph is the Director of the Center for Climate Change and Health at PHI. She also provides consultation to local jurisdictions to advance implementation of Health in All Policies, and participates internationally in training and consultation related to HiAP and climate change and health.
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Previously, Rudolph served as the deputy director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH)’s Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Public Health and the health officer and public health director for the City of Berkeley, CA.
SHARON RUDY, PhD, BCC
Program Director, USAID Global Health Fellows Program II
What it takes to be a successful Global Health Professional (Presentation)
Rudy is Program Director for the USAID Global Health Fellows Program II at PHI, a $250 million USAID-funded program to help build the next generation of global health professionals. Under Rudy’s leadership, GHFP-II conducted and published “The PHI/GHFP-II Employer’s Study: The Hidden barriers Between Domestic and Global Health Careers and Crucial Competencies for Success.”
In her previous role, Rudy spent almost a decade working in Anglophone Africa designing, implementing, and evaluating national behavior change communication programs and client-provider interaction interventions. She also worked in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia implementing performance improvement and training programs through UNC Chapel Hill.
CHRISTINA C. TAM, PhD, MSW
Postdoctoral Fellow & Associate Scientist, Alcohol Research Group
Tam's expertise includes racial/ethnic disparities in adolescent risk & well-being; immigrant family adaptation in neighborhoods; and translational research with underserved ethnic groups.
KATIE WOODRUFF, MPH
Predoctoral Fellow, Alcohol Research Group
State legislators' use of evidence in making policy on alcohol use in pregnancy: Preliminary data from qualitative interviews (Presentation)
Woodruff’s current research is situated within a long-term goal to understand and improve public discourse and policy environments on reproductive health topics in the U.S. Her dissertation will be a qualitative exploration of how lawmakers in selected U.S. states make reproductive health policy decisions, including how they assess and use scientific evidence when making laws regulating abortion and responding to the use of alcohol in pregnancy.
EMILY YETTE, MPH
Predoctoral Fellow, Alcohol Research Group
Health-related quality of life among Black sexual minority women: Intersection of race and sexual orientation​ (Presentation)
Yette's dissertation investigates the health of black women who identify as lesbian or bisexual. In particular, Yette will use probability-sampled data to examine differences in alcohol consumption associated with the combination of identifying as both a sexual and ethnic minority.
