conference speakers 

​Dr. Alexis M. Barbarin is a Public Health Entomologist at the State of North Carolina Division of Public Health. Dr. Barbarin specializes in vector borne diseases and coordinates the surveillance of diseases that impact humans including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, Zika virus, and malaria to name a few. She is a formally trained entomologist, specializing in tick identification, molecular ecology, pesticide efficacy, and social network analysis. As the public health entomologist at the NC Division of Public Health, she serves as the director of the North Carolina Veterinary Tick Identification Program, where she has recently discovered the Asian longhorned tick in four additional North Carolina counties. Dr. Barbarin earned a B.S. in biology from Xavier University of Louisiana (2006), and a M.Ed. in Agricultural & Extension Education (2009) and Ph.D. in Entomology (2012) from the Pennsylvania State University.

Mamadou Alimou Barry, PharmD, MPH and MSc, is a Senior HIS Specialist at MEASURE Evaluation, providing technical oversight and support to countries. He is currently supporting two MEval projects in Cote d’Ivoire and Mali for both the HMIS and the GHSA. He led the RHIS basic curriculum development and dissemination in both francophone and Anglophone settings and represented MEASURE Evaluation at the WAHO partnership forum from 2011-2017. His areas of expertise include RHIS performance improvement, HMIS tools development, HIV control and prevention, and M&E and HIS capacity building. His recent works include evaluations of countries' RHIS performance in Mali and Cote d’Ivoire using the newly revised PRISM tools, the introduction of the RHIS curriculum into the school of public health in Mali, the effect of the Ebola epidemic on MCH services utilization and services delivery practices as well as the status of survival of Ebola patients in Guinea. Dr. Barry is a former CDC Senior Technical Adviser in Mali and former assistant professor at Check Anta DIOP University, Dakar Senegal. 

Robert H. Beach, PhD, specializes in the development and application of economic models designed to analyze agricultural, environmental, energy, transportation, and natural resource regulations, programs, and policies. He is currently involved in the development of multiple forest and agricultural sector—as well as macroeconomic— models for use in assessment of both domestic and international policies and programs. Dr. Beach is a Senior Economist and RTI Fellow with over 19 years of experience managing and conducting applied research funded by U.S. federal agencies, foundations, and other organizations. Research applications include studies evaluating economic and food security impacts of climate change and adaptation, risk management, the potential for and economic impacts of mitigating greenhouse gases from agriculture, forestry, and land use for regions around the world, low emissions development strategies (LEDS), the economic and environmental impacts of large-scale bioenergy production, land use change and associated greenhouse gas and other emissions including reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), and factors influencing forest investment and management. Dr. Beach is currently leading the RTI Grand Challenge effort focused on improving agricultural resilience and food security in Rwanda. Dr. Beach received his BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and PhD in Economics from North Carolina State University.

Lisa Becton is a swine veterinarian with more than 25 years in the swine industry. She currently is the Director of Swine Health Information & Research with the National Pork Board. There she is responsible for oversight of swine health research, biosecurity/farm security, diagnostic and surveillance issues, and disease response. She has previous experience in production managing 125,000 sows and progeny as well as acting as packing plant liaison.  Lisa obtained her DVM from North Carolina State University and an MS in Food Safety from Michigan State University. Diplomat, American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. 
 

Dr. Bentley received her MA and PhD degrees in Medical Anthropology from the University of Connecticut. From 1985-98 she was on faculty in International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Since 1998 she has been on faculty at the University of North Carolina, where she has held several leadership roles. Dr. Bentley’s research focuses on women and infant's nutrition, infant and young child feeding, behavioral research on sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and community-based interventions for nutrition and health. She has particular expertise in qualitative research methods and the application of these for program development and evaluation. She is Principal Investigator of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant for analyses of nutrition data from the Breastfeeding, Antiretroviral and Nutrition (BAN) study. Dr. Bentley was a member of the Advisory Board of the Indo-US Joint Working Group on Maternal and Child Health and is a member of the ASPPH Global Health Committee. She is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology.  In 2005 she was named Paul G. Rogers Ambassador for Global Health and was the founding Chair of the Board of Directors of the Triangle Global Health Consortium. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Universities in Global Health. Recently, she was elected as the UNC Faculty Director of the Duke-UNC Rotary Peace Fellows Program.

Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., is director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Toxicology Program (NTP). A board-certified toxicologist, Birnbaum has served as a federal scientist for nearly 39 years. Prior to her appointment as NIEHS and NTP Director in 2009, she spent 19 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she directed the largest division focusing on environmental health research.

Birnbaum has received many awards and recognitions. In 2016, she was awarded the North Carolina Award in Science. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health. She was also elected to the Collegium Ramazzini, an independent, international academy comprised of internationally renowned experts in the fields of occupational and environmental health and received an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Rochester and a Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Illinois. She also received an Honorary Doctorate from Ben-Gurion University, Israel; the Surgeon General’s Medallion 2014; and 14 Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards, which reflect the recommendations of EPA’s external Science Advisory Board, for specific publications.

Birnbaum is an active member of the scientific community. She was vice president of the International Union of Toxicology, the umbrella organization for toxicology societies in more than 50 countries, and former president of the Society of Toxicology, the largest professional organization of toxicologists in the world. She is the author of more than 800 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and reports. Birnbaum’s own research focuses on the pharmacokinetic behavior of environmental chemicals, mechanisms of action of toxicants including endocrine disruption, and linking of real-world exposures to health effects. She is also an adjunct professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Curriculum in Toxicology, and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as in the Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program at Duke University. A native of New Jersey, Birnbaum received her M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Bowman is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on HIV and parasitic co-infections in Latin America, with a particular focus on opportunistic infections that affect the central nervous system such as toxoplasmosis and Chagas disease. She is interested in the epidemiology and pathogenesis of parasites and neglected tropical diseases, especially those that are prevalent in the Americas. She has also expanded her work in vector-borne infections to study the emerging Zika virus epidemic in Nicaragua and Brazil.

​Lisa Braziel is a Senior Vice President at Ignite Social Media, one of the world’s leading social media marketing agencies. During her time at Ignite, she has co-authored the book “Social Media is a Cocktail Party” and helped develop social media strategies for many of the world’s largest brands, including Amazon, Walgreen’s, Chrysler, Samsung, Disney, Nike, and Microsoft. Early in her marketing career, she has also worked with global health clients at NIH National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, as well as programs for children and adult health with the NC Health and Human Services.

Dr. Breen is a Professor of Genomics and the Oscar J. Fletcher Distinguished Professor of Comparative Oncology Genetics in the Dept. of Molecular Biomedical Sciences at the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine. He is a member of the NCSU Comparative Medicine Institute (CMI) the NCSU Genetics Program in the College of Science, and the Cancer Genetics Program at the University of North Carolina's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. He serves on the steering committee of the Consortium for Canine Comparative Oncology (C3O), a strategic partnership between NC State College of Veterinary Medicine and the Duke Cancer Institute. Dr. Breen was a charter member, and serves on the Board of Directors, of the Canine Comparative Oncology and Genomics Consortium (CCOGC), a 501c3 not-for-profit organization established to promote the role of the dog in comparative biomedical research, and also serves on the board of directors of the Canines-N-Kids Foundation, a 501c3 committed to finding a cure to the devastating cancers that canines and children face in common. He is also a founder of Sentinel Biomedical, an NC State spinout company established to leverage the role of the domestic dog as a sentinel species for human health, and to bring advanced molecular cancer diagnostics to the community.  Sentinel Biomedical launched the first liquid biopsy for detection of canine cancer that is being used for early detection and monitoring of disease.

Felicia Browne, ScD, MPH, is a social epidemiologist at RTI International in the Substance Use, Gender and Applied Research Program. She has more than a decade of experience adapting and implementing HIV behavioral interventions locally and globally to empower adolescent girls and young women at risk for HIV. She is a Multiple Principal Investigator of a NIDA-funded R01 study testing an mHealth delivery of an HIV prevention intervention in North Carolina health departments for young African American women. She was an integral part of the mHealth development team—ensuring innovative intervention components were included. She is also the Co-Project Director of a NIDA-funded R01 project in South Africa for female adolescents who are out of school, and a Co-Investigator on two NIH-funded R01 projects in South Africa—including one for women living with HIV.

​

Felicia serves on UNC’s community advisory board for HIV research, is a mentor for WomenNC’s leadership program for college students interested in eliminating gender inequities, and volunteers for a Durham-based organization dedicated to addressing health disparities. Felicia received her Doctor of Science in Social Epidemiology from Harvard, her MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education from UNC-Chapel Hill, and her BS in Psychology from Davidson College. 

Dr. Dennis Carroll has over 30 years of leadership experience in global health and development.  Until recently he served as the Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Threats Division.  In this position Dr. Carroll was responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership for the Agency's programs addressing new and emerging disease threats.   He provided overall strategic leadership for the Agency’s response to the West Africa Ebola epidemic

Dr Carroll was initially detailed to USAID from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a senior public health advisor in 1991.  In 1995 he was named the Agency's Senior Infectious Diseases advisor, responsible for overseeing the Agency's programs in malaria, tuberculosis, antimicrobial resistance, disease surveillance, as well as neglected and emerging infectious diseases.  In this capacity Dr. Carroll was directly involved in the development and introduction of a range of new technologies for disease prevention and control, including: community-based delivery of treatment of onchocerciasis, rapid diagnostics for malaria, new treatment therapies for drug resistant malaria, intermittent therapy for pregnant women and “long-lasting” insecticide treated bednets for prevention of malaria.  He was responsible for the initial design and development of the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).  Dr. Carroll officially left CDC and joined USAID in 2005 when he assumed responsibility for leading the USAID response to the spread of avian influenza.  Between 2009 - 2019 he oversaw the Agency’s Emerging Threats program spanning more than 30 countries across Africa and Asia.

Dr Carroll has a doctorate in biomedical research with a special focus in tropical infectious diseases from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  He was a Research Scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where he studied the molecular mechanics of viral infection.  Dr. Carroll has received awards from both CDC and USAID, including the 2006 USAID Science and Technology Award for his work on malaria, including the design of PMI, and avian influenza, the 2008 Administrator’s Management Innovation Award for his management of the Agency’s Avian and Pandemic Influenza program, in 2015 USAID’s Distinguished Service Award, and a 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from Texas A&M University.

Anna Caudill is an Associate at DAI Global Health, supporting new business development and technical program implementation. She previously served as the Program Assistant for the USAID Preparedness and Response Project at DAI Global Health. Prior to joining DAI, she worked on several public health projects in North Carolina, including quality assessment of a birth center lactation program, qualitative analysis of a statewide initiative linking and retaining Mexican migrant MSM and TGW in HIV care, and survey data collection for a study on personal protective equipment use among day laborers. She received her BA in Global Studies and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Matthew Chamberlin was named UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health director of communications and marketing in May. Previously, he was the deputy director of the myFutureNC Commission. Prior to joining the myFutureNC Commission in 2017, Chamberlin was the first director of external relations for Higher Education Works in Raleigh, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building grassroots support for North Carolina’s system of public higher education. Chamberlin has more than 25 years of domestic and international experience in strategic planning, digital online marketing and communications, and video production. Chamberlin earned a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and Spanish from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Born and raised in New York City, he has lived and worked in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Argentina and Spain.
 

​Audrey Chang is the Head of External Relations at NC State University's Institute for Advanced Analytics.  In addition to overseeing marketing and communications, Audrey stewards the numerous relationships between the Institute and the world's leading brands in finance, retail, and healthcare.  Prior to returning to the Triangle, she served as the Chief of Business Planning and Partnerships at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.  

Allison Connolly has a background in surveillance, informatics, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Since joining Palladium in 2015, she’s managed projects in Southern Africa focusing on informatics and M&E. She has also worked to develop community-based OneHealth surveillance in Burkina Faso and Senegal through the MEASURE Evaluation project. Allison was a WHO field epidemiologist in Sierra Leone during its Ebola outbreak, training and managing district surveillance teams. She also spent a year as an epidemiologist in Nepal and Ethiopia working for WHO/CDC on immunization and vaccine-preventable disease surveillance. From 2004–2013, Allison worked at NC Division of Public Health on the statewide transition to the NC Electronic Disease Surveillance System. 

​Kerri Dean is Exhibitions Assistant and Do-It-Yourself Project Manager at the National Museum of Natural History.  Kerri coordinates and distributes the DIY program and leads diverse teams to produce new DIYs. Prior to arriving at NMNH in 2018, she held various positions, including a museum specialist at the Cooper History Museum. Kerri received her B.A. in Political Science from UC Irvine, and a M.A. in History and Archives, and currently a PhD candidate in History and Museum Studies at Claremont Graduate University.

Talia is a Senior Digital Specialist who conducts strategy analysis, digital market assessments, digital trainings and manages digital-focused projects. She has conducted research on the technology sector and its growth potential in specific sectors, including agriculture and health, in Nigeria, Mozambique,Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Cote d’Ivoire and Uganda, where she managed the USAID-funded Fall Armyworm Tech Prize. Prior to DAI, she worked in global health for USAID Office of HIV/AIDS, the Liberia Ministry of Health, the Global Fund, and Grassroot Soccer. She has a Masters in Global Human Development from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Pape Gaye is a native of Senegal and a lifelong advocate for health workers, strong health systems, and access to health care for all. Under his leadership as president and CEO of IntraHealth International, the organization has made human resources for health a crucial part of the worldwide conversation on global health. Gaye draws on three decades of leadership in international health and development as he oversees work in over 40 countries to strengthen their health workforces and health systems.

​

Gaye began his career with the US Peace Corps and went on to work with the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Committee and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before his appointment as CEO at IntraHealth, he led the organization’s regional office for West, Central, and North Africa. Gaye holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Los Angeles. His board and advisory services include the Center for African Family Studies, Duke University’s Global Health Institute, Global Health Council, PAI, the Reproductive Health NGO CEO Working Group, Speak Up Africa, and the Triangle Global Health Consortium.

​

​Eric Geers, founder of the Geers Group, has 15+ years of global health experience working with government agencies in 17 countries to improve health outcomes. He provides technical support in developing One Health approaches to disease surveillance, promoting data-informed decision making and conducting use-focused evaluations for improved performance and scale-up. He has an MPH from the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and an MA in Sustainable International Development from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Previously he worked for MEASURE Evaluation, Palladium; UNC ; Oxfam Great Britain; and the United States Peace Corps. 

​Christopher George joined RTI International in 2017 as a Project Manager in the Global Health Technologies group within the Center for Global Health. Mr. George currently serves as the Program Manager for the CARB-X accelerator at RTI.  He is responsible for coordinating the technical and regulatory support RTI provides to CARB-X product developers.  In addition, he assisted CARB-X directly in developing their support models and internal processes.  Prior to joining RTI, Mr. George worked in project management at a CDMO where he managed various product development programs for clients in the academic and private sectors. 

Eric Gonder has been a second-generation turkey producer and a senior veterinarian with Butterball/Goldsboro Milling Company for more than 30 years. His responsibilities include three breeder divisions, three hatcheries, four slaughter plants, more than 600 contract farms in five states and a NPIP approved laboratory. Eric oversees bird health and welfare and disaster response.  He received a DVM from Iowa State in 1974, a MS in avian microbiology from the University of Minnesota in 1991, and a PhD in pathology/poultry science from NCSU in 1991. 

Gregory C. Gray MD, MPH is an infectious disease epidemiologist and a public health physician. He serves as a Professor at Duke University (USA), Duke-NUS Medical School (Singapore) and Duke Kunshan University (China) where he supervises laboratory-based research teams. These teams involve 30 professionals studying more than 30 pathogens under 30 research and training projects running in multiple countries: China, Iraq, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, the Philippines, the United States, and Vietnam. He has served on various expert scientific committees and boards including those for the US Food and Drug Administration, US Department of Defense, and US National Academy of Sciences. He has won multiple awards for his infectious disease research and training.  

​

With expertise in emerging infectious diseases, Dr. Gray has conducted diverse epidemiological studies of infectious diseases for 25 years in 5 continents. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. A strong supporter for the One Health approach, he has won multiple One Health research and training grants, helped to established centers of One Health (USA, Romania, China) and developed 4 graduate programs in One Health (PhD, MHS, and certificate). 

Dai Hozumi has served as the Chief Technical Officer at IntraHealth International since September 2018.  He oversees the Center for Technical Excellence to invigorate thought leadership and improve the technical quality of projects in more than 30 countries.  During his 21-year career in global health, he has worked in more than 20 countries.  Previously, he was appointed as a Takemi Research Fellow in International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Hozumi holds an MD from Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan, and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2007, he graduated from the MIT Sloan School of Management with an MS in management.  

Leoneda Inge is WUNC's race and southern culture reporter. She is the first public radio journalist in the South to hold such a position, which explores modern and historical constructs to tell stories of poverty and wealth, health and food culture, education and racial identity. Leoneda's most recent work of note includes the series “When a Rural North Carolina Clinic Closes,” produced in partnership with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. Other recent work includes “50 Years of the Ebony Fashion Fair,” the debate surrounding “Race, Slavery & Monuments,” and the “Rebuilding of Princeville” after Hurricane Matthew.

In 2017, Leoneda was named Journalist of Distinction by the National Association of Black Journalists. Leoneda is a graduate of Florida A&M University and Columbia University, where she earned her Master's Degree in Journalism as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics. In 2014, she traveled to Berlin, Brussels and Prague as a German/American Journalist Exchange Fellow.

​Kirsten Krueger, is an international public health program manager and research utilization specialist with over 19 years of experience in program development, social science research, and communications. Ms. Krueger is a Technical Advisor at FHI 360, where she designs and conducts evidence utilization activities, specializing in improving access to services for under-served populations. Much of her work has focused in the reproductive health arena where she led national, regional, and global advocacy campaigns to ensure policies and service guidelines reflect the latest and best evidence available. She also works on multi-sector interventions, data for decision making, knowledge management, and capacity building.  Prior to joining FHI 360, Ms. Krueger worked at the UNC-CH School of Social Work in teen pregnancy prevention for North Carolina.

Dr. Lashnits is a clinician investigator at the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine. Her current research focuses on the epidemiology of Bartonella infection in a One Health context, specifically modeling Bartonella transmission as a zoonotic vector-borne disease at the interface of humans, companion animals, and the environment.

​Greg is a Professor of Aquatic Animal and Wildlife Medicine at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine where he has taught since 1993.  He has degrees from Gettysburg College, Northeastern University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Greg is a diplomate of the American and European Colleges of Zoological Medicine and an author on over 125 scientific articles, four books, and approximately 30 book chapters about invertebrates, fishes, amphibians and reptiles.  Along with Dr. Ken Lohmann he is part of an international team of scientists studying the health of Galápagos wildlife with over a dozen publications to date.  

Gavin Lindberg serves as Senior Director of Public Affairs where he draws on 25 years of experience in healthcare policy and patient-centered advocacy.  

​

Gavin and his team advocate for Grifols public policy priorities at the federal, state and local level with the primary goal of ensuring patient access to lifesaving therapies and healthcare services. This work is done through engagement with elected officials, government agencies, trade associations and patient organizations.  

​

Gavin has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Michigan State University, and works out of the Grifols Public Affairs office in Washington, DC.   Prior to joining Grifols in 2011, Gavin spent 16 years at a healthcare consulting firm in Washington were he represented a variety of patient organizations, health professions schools and biotechnology clients.  He previously served as a legislative aide in the United States Congress, and was an international policy fellow in the British House of Commons.  

​

Gavin and his wife Wendy live in Germantown, Maryland.  
 

Dr. Maggi has a background in proteomics, and received his PhD in molecular microbiology of fastidious microorganisms from the University of Puerto Rico. He joined the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005, focusing on vector-borne diseases. He specializes in the design, development, and validation of clinical diagnostic tests for the detection and characterization of emerging and re-emerging vector-borne pathogens in humans and animals. His recent research also focuses on identification of vaccines, characterization of mechanisms for microbial pathogenicity, and development of diagnostic tests aimed at the identification of potential molecular markers for early detection of bacterial-induced cancers.

Adrian Marchetti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.   He leads a biological oceanography lab that performs inquiry-based science by combining physiological and molecular approaches in laboratory isolates and natural communities to investigate how marine microbes are affected by their environment and in turn, influence ocean biogeo-chemistry and ecosystem dynamics.  Adrian has been involved in research in the Galapagos since 2014, conducting annual oceanographic surveys in the archipelago to understand the influence of climatic changes (e.g., El Niño) on marine productivity and microbial diversity.  He currently serves as a faculty research director for the UNC Center for Galapagos Studies and an advisory board member for the Galapagos Science Center. 

Dr. Timothy Mastro serves as FHI 360’s Chief Science Officer, responsible for advancing the quality of science across the organization and growing research and evaluation capabilities in both the natural and social sciences. In his previous role as FHI 360’s Director of Global Health, Population and Nutrition, Dr. Mastro oversaw global research and technical work across a broad range of health, population and nutrition areas. Activities under his direction included global health research, global health programs, program sciences and technical support, nutrition and food security, contraceptive technology innovation and science facilitation. 

Prior to joining FHI 360 in 2008, Dr. Mastro served in scientific leadership positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 20 years. His research and work in programs at CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Global AIDS Program addressed the prevention and treatment of HIV, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis. Dr. Mastro first joined CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer. From 1993 to 2000, he served in Bangkok as director of the CDC-Thai Ministry of Public Health HIV/AIDS Collaboration. Dr. Mastro began his international public health career on the Thai-Cambodian border in 1983, where he served as a physician and medical coordinator of the United Nations Border Relief Operation through 1985. 

Dr. Mastro has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Colgate University and a Doctor of Medicine from Saint Louis University. He trained in internal medicine at New York City’s Metropolitan Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He studied at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and received a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Royal College of Physicians of London. 

Amita Mehrotra is a Senior Program Manager at FHI 360 within the HIV Unit with over 12 years of experience managing and implementing HIV/AIDS and health programs. She has specialized experience with design and delivery of HIV prevention programming with key populations, supporting the organizational capacity development of local institutions, advocacy to address policy barriers to access to health services, and program management of US Government funded awards. As a skilled trainer and facilitator, she has developed and delivered training on a range of areas including co-authoring the “Developing Policy Advocacy Strategies” Facilitator’s Manual to support local organizations develop methodical advocacy strategies. Ms. Mehrotra holds an MPH in International Health Promotion from The George Washington University. 

Aubrey K. Miller, MD, MPH, is a Captain in the US Public Health Service, at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and is board certified in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.  He is currently the Senior Medical Advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), where he oversees legislative, policy, strategic planning, and coordination of environmental health issues and activities among U.S. federal agencies, congress, academia, and other stakeholders.  His career includes notable public health positions with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

Joseph Nixon is Vice President of Business Development for Locus Biosciences.  Before joining Locus in 2017, Joseph led the investment team at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center where he directed investments in more than 60 early-stage life science companies.  Joseph previously held business development and licensing positions with Novartis and Alkermes. Earlier in his career, he was Product Manager for a venture-backed start-up bioinformatics company and worked in licensing and start-up venture creation at the Cleveland Clinic. Joseph earned a BS in Biology from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

​Trevor’s eclectic professional background encompasses technology, electro-mechanical engineering, software development, data analytics, and musical performance. He is principal developer of the One Health Assessment for Planning and Performance (OH-APP) - a monitoring framework for multisectoral coordination mechanisms to annually self-assess their organizational capacity and performance and inform planning and development assistance. Prior to joining DAI, he worked to advance the quantitative methodology in conflict analytics at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, maintained complex automatic train control systems for a major public transit organization, and performed spatial analysis in conjunction with near-real-time remote sensing of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon.

Rebecca Pelc received degrees in biology and anthropology from the  University of Mary Washington in 2005. After graduation, she worked for a biodefense contractor focused on the detection of biothreat agents. In 2011, she started graduate school at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where her doctoral studies focused on the antimicrobial responses of ticks to vectored Rickettsia and Francisella. Upon graduation, she studied humoral responses to Flavivirus infection at NIH, developing the NIH vaccine for Zika virus.. She joined NCSLPH in 2017 as the Public Health Scientist in the Virology/ Serology unit, becoming manager of the Unit in 2019. 

Katey Pelican has recently been named Co-Director of the University of Minnesota-wide Strategic Partnerships and Research Collaborative (SPARC). She is Principal Investigator and Deputy Director of the USAID One Health Workforce Project which supports university networks in Africa and Asia to build a global workforce to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats (84 Universities in 15 countries total). Dr. Pelican has also developed, with USDA, FAO, CDC, and USAID, the OH-SMART toolkit for improving multisectoral coordination and decision making. The toolkit has been implemented in 20 countries to support zoonotic disease, One Health, and Antimicrobial Resistance Action Planning as well as climate change disease risk and community impact planning.  Prior to UMN, Dr. Pelican was a wildlife researcher with the Smithsonian Institution and helped initiate an Environmental Change and Species Survival Initiative and lead the Smithsonian-wide Cryobanking initiative.

Dr. Reiskind received his MPH and PhD from the University of Michigan. His lab studies the ecology of vectors of disease, with an emphasis on mosquito ecology. He has worked extensively on the container Aedes mosquitoes responsible for dengue, chikungunya, and Zika virus transmission, with investigations spanning scales of inquiry from the regional population genetics to individual behavior. He is also interested in patterns of mosquito diversity and the consequences of vector diversity for disease transmission, using dog heartworm disease as a convenient study system.

​Meg Rivers is an Exhibition Developer and Project Manager at the National Museum of Natural History. Meg leads interdisciplinary teams to create engaging exhibitions. After interning in 2005, she coordinated graphics or specimens/objects for a number of projects, such as exhibitions as the Sant Ocean Hall and David H Koch Hall of Human Origins. She then managed Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt and Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code, the latter was acclaimed by the New York Times and Washington Post as a successful collaboration between NMNH and the National Institutes of Health. After opening the Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World exhibition and global outreach project, she assisted in opening the David H Kock Hall of Fossils exhibition and audio description mobile app. Meg received a B.A. in Archaeology from University of Wisconsin – La Crosse and a M.A. in Museum Studies from The George Washington University.  

Doris Rouse is the Vice President of RTI International’s Center for Global Health. She manages the coordination of diverse disciplines to address major global health needs. Dr. Rouse has been the Project Director for three Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grants to advance public- and private-sector collaborations to develop improved technologies for global health needs. She has extensive experience in forming public and private consortia. For example, she contributed to the formation of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), an international public/private consortium to develop new drugs for tuberculosis, and she currently leads RTI’s work in support of the TB Alliance’s ongoing activities. She recently led a study assessing the critical factors for success of public-private partnerships for medical product development. She leads RTI’s activities in the CARB-X public-private collaboration to develop new solutions to combat antimicrobial resistant bacteria.

Robert Salerno is the Director, Health Security at DAI Global Health. A global health expert, he most recently served as the Technical Integration Manager on the USAID-funded Preparedness and Response (P&R) project where he was responsible for establishing global best practices, ensuring technical excellence, and delivering solutions to national staff tasked with strengthening multisectoral coordination. In this role, Robert was the lead architect of a global benchmarking framework, the One Health Assessment for Planning and Performance (OH-APP), that has been used as a self-assessment tool in 15 countries. Since 2008, Robert has provided expert technical assistance to more than a dozen DAI health, economic growth and environment programs in over 20 countries. He currently serves as an expert member on two external technical advisory groups for the World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). A Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar, Robert is passionate about applying One Health multisectoral approaches to disease prevention, detection, preparedness and response.  

Susan Scribner is DAI’s Vice President for Health System Solutions, with responsibility for health systems strengthening and global health security.  A public policy expert, she is a champion for building resilient health systems that can prevent, detect and rapidly respond to disease threats, and leveraging health security interventions to strengthen core health system functions.  Susan’s 25-year career spans a wide range of global health areas including health policy, financing and governance, infectious diseases, and private sector health. Prior to joining DAI, Susan worked for 17 years for Abt Associates; from 2007-2009, she was Chief of Party for a project in Vietnam and Laos that built capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to Avian Influenza. She also led a health systems strengthening project in Uganda in 2004-2005. Susan has supported a wide range of projects from the home office and provided technical support and leadership in health policy, financing and governance, infectious diseases, and private sector health. Susan has extensive experience in strategy and business development.

​Sabrina Sholts is a Curator of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. She is the Director of the Smithsonian Institution Bio-Imaging Research Center, a World Economic Forum Young Scientist, and Lead Curator of the exhibition "Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World". Her research uses museum collections of biological remains to study environmental factors of health in the past and present. She received her PhD in Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara and was a postdoctoral researcher in Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley and in Biophysics and Biochemistry at Stockholm University. 

Brian W. Simpson is editor-in-chief of GHN and editor of the award-winning Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has written stories on everything from the development of the polio vaccine and the influence of Islam on public health, to the malaria parasite’s lifecycle. He has published articles from India, Nepal, Cuba, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and other countries. Brian earned a Master of Arts from the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the Bloomberg School. Simpson also teaches science writing at Johns Hopkins University.

An experienced biotechnology innovator, Kelly Smith returned to the entrepreneurial community in 2014 after serving as Head of Pasteuria Bioscience for Syngenta Crop Protection. She was a co-founder of Pasteuria Bioscience, where she was principally responsible for development of the proprietary Pasteuria manufacturing process. At AgBiome she founded the fermentation and formulation teams, led the early manufacturing development and registration of the Howler fungicide project, and currently serves as a research and innovation leader for all of the company's biological product development projects.   She holds an MS and PhD in Environmental Engineering Science from the California Institute of Technology and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University.

Jill Stewart is a Professor of Environmental Sciences and Engineering. She is also Deputy Director of the Center for Galápagos Studies, a Faculty Fellow in the Carolina Population Center, and co-Lead for the Global Health Concentration of the Gillings MPH degree program. She previously served as the chair for ASM Division Q: Environmental and General Applied Microbiology, and as an ASM Distinguished Lecturer. Her research focuses on environmental health microbiology including the development of novel tools to detect and track microbes in the environment. In the Galápagos she is using a One Health perspective to evaluate anthropogenic influences on the resistome. 

Lisa Stone received her MD from George Washington University and her MPH from Harvard. She led Emergency Preparedness and Response for the Department of Public Health in Massachusetts before her international work. Dr. Stone has developed curricula, toolkits, and planning materials to support One Health country preparedness and response for outbreaks, including Avian Flu, Ebola and outbreaks of unknown etiology. A focus of her work has been the development of multisectoral, operational, sub-national plans. 

Katie Taratus is the Senior Director of U.S. Programs at DAI Global Health. She previously served as Director of the Preparedness and Response (P&R) project, which worked in 16 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia to institutionalize One Health collaboration across government ministries and with the private sector. P&R supported improvements in public health, animal health, and environmental health by developing, testing, and documenting innovative tools and approaches that support multisectoral health security goals. Since joining DAI in 2006, Katie has supported projects focused on health security, food and nutritional security, livelihoods, economic strengthening, and resiliency.

Lauren Thie is an environmental program consultant for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and serves as Principal Investigator for the Climate and Health Program cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lauren earned her Masters of Science in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Kimberly Thigpen Tart is a health science policy analyst in the Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the former News Editor of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. She is a member of the NIEHS Global Environmental Health/WHO Collaborating Centre on Environmental Health Sciences Steering Committee. She is a founding member of the USGCRP Climate Change and Human Health Working Group, and a member of the Steering Committee and a contributing author to the 2016 USGCRP report on the Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States. She serves on the Senior Staff Steering Committee of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children and the NIH Prevention Research Coordinating Committee. She serves as an NIEHS liaison to the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for the Standing Committee on Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions and Environmental Health Matters Initiative, as well as the Triangle Global Health Consortium and the Research Triangle Environmental Health Collaborative. She received her B.A. with Honors in journalism and her J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her Master of Public Health Leadership from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. 

Mary Beth Thomas was promoted to senior vice president, science and business development in July 2018 after serving several years as vice president of NCBiotech’s Emerging Sector Development program. As senior vice president, she is responsible for the Center's emerging company development (ECD) and science and technology development (SciTech) programs, as well as the information technology and life science intelligence programs. The ECD and SciTech units administer the Center’s loan and grant programs. Thomas has also managed the Center’s biodefense/biosecurity and precision health initiatives. Before joining NCBiotech in 2008, Thomas served as the statewide director of technology commercialization with the Small Business and Technology Development Center in Raleigh.

Thomas earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biotechnology at the Rochester Institute of Technology (New York), a doctorate in developmental biology from the University of Cincinnati and served as a postdoctoral fellow with the Department of Neurobiology at Duke University.

Amanda Thompson, Associate Professor, Departments of Anthropology and Nutrition, UNC Chapel Hill, is a human biologist with a background in anthropology and nutrition.  She is a Faculty Fellow at the Carolina Population Center and serves as a faculty research director for the UNC Center for Galapagos Studies and an advisory board member of the Galapagos Science Center. She completed her MPH and PhD degrees at Emory University. Her research focuses on early life social and physical environmental exposures and their impacts on child growth and the development of obesity and the dual burden of disease across the life course. She has been conducting research on human health in Galápagos since 2014.

Romain Tohouri, MSc., MD is an expert in the field of Health Informatics and ICTs for development. He has over 14 years of experience designing and developing health information technology and systems and countries including Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Haiti, Mali, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso. Since 2017 Dr. Tohouri is the activity lead for the MEASURE Evaluation, Burkina-Faso One-health project, supporting the implementation of a one-health zoonotic disease surveillance electronic platform in three different ministries. Currently he is a Senior HMIS Advisor on MEASURE Evaluation Phase IV.  

Juli Trtanj is the One Health and Integrated Climate and Weather Extremes Research Lead for NOAA.  She is responsible for developing and implementing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Health Strategy across NOAA and with other federal, state, local and international Agencies, academic and private sector partners.  She is leading efforts to build the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control, FEMA, OSHA, NIOSH, EPA and other agencies.  She coordinates the NOAA One Health Working Group which brings together NOAA data, research, information and actions to inform health decision making.  She helped start the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) now run under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). She started the first multidisciplinary and multi-partner research program on Climate Variability and Human Health.  She also developed and directed NOAA’s Oceans and Human Health Initiative focused on Early Warning Systems, Health Benefits from the Sea, and Graduate Training.

​

Ms. Trtanj co-chairs the US Global Change Research Program, Climate Change and Human Health Group (CCHHG) and represents NOAA on the Pandemic Prediction and Forecasting Science and Technology Working Group. She was author on the Fourth National Climate Assessment, served on the Steering Committee of the USGCRP Climate and Health Assessment for which she was also the Convening Lead Author for the Water-Related Illness chapter. She co-chairs the Group Earth Observations (GEO) EO4Health and Community of Practice and is directly involved with the World Health Organization (WHO), and other partners, in the development of the Integrated Information Systems for heat, cholera and other water-related illnesses. She has contributed to, reviewed, or edited sections of several IPCC and US National Climate Assessment reports and authored numerous publications. 
 

Annie is a DVM-PhD student at the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine. Her research interests revolve around the epidemiology of zoonotic infectious diseases. Her previous graduate research investigated social and environmental risk factors for Q fever (Coxiella burnetii) transmission in central Kenya. Currently her research focuses on integrating computational and microbiological methods to understand ecological and evolutionary mechanism of AMR in Campylobacter coli from agricultural swine herds. Annie is especially interested in global health and understanding infectious disease epidemiology at the human-animal interface through interdisciplinary research.

Stephanie Watson-Grant, DrPH, has 17 years of experience in public health and development, with 14 years of which is working with organizations at the country level. Dr. Watson-Grant held positions in USAID and UNAIDS and has extensive experience in a diverse portfolio of work including routine monitoring with mHealth resources, outcome monitoring surveys, outcome evaluations, evaluation capacity building, causal loop mapping to assess risks to task shifting from facilities to communities and has publications focused on measurement of country ownership in global health. In her most recent position, she serves as the Director of Field Operations for MEASURE Evaluation where she leads a team of four country portfolio managers who provide oversight to 36 country operations, implementing activities related to more than eight different earmarks. 

Dr. Carl Williams is the State Public Health Veterinarian for the N.C. Division of Public Health, where he has worked since 2004. In this capacity he serves as the supervisor of the foodborne, vector-borne and zoonotic disease surveillance and response programs. 

​

He received his veterinary medical degree and master’s degree in microbiology from NCSU in 1997 and his bachelor’s degree in biology from UNC-Charlotte in 1991. Prior to working for the state, Dr. Williams worked as a small animal practitioner in Carrboro, N.C., served as a Public Health Officer in the U.S. Air Force, and worked as the vector-borne disease epidemiologist for the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. 

​

Dr. Williams is licensed to practice veterinary medicine in North Carolina and Wisconsin and is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. 

Dr Gavin Yamey is Professor of Global Health and Public Policy, Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health, and Associate Director for Policy at the Duke Global Health Institute. He trained in clinical medicine at Oxford University and University College London, medical journalism and editing at the BMJ, and public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was Deputy Editor of the Western Journal of Medicine, Assistant Editor at the BMJ, a founding Senior Editor of PLOS Medicine, and the Principal Investigator on a $1.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the launch of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. In 2009, he was awarded a Kaiser Family Mini-Media Fellowship in Global Health Reporting to examine the barriers to scaling up low cost, low tech health tools in Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. 

​

Gavin previously served on three Lancet commissions—on investing in health, global surgery, and TB—and he currently serves on the Lancet Commission on Peace, Justice, Gender Equality and Transformation of Institutions for Healthy Societies. He chairs the Advisory Board for the Lancet Commission on Global Hearing Loss. He has been an External Advisor to the WHO and to TDR, the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. Dr. Yamey directs the Global Health Track in Duke's Program on Global Policy and Governance in Geneva. Before joining Duke, Dr. Yamey led the Evidence-to-Policy Initiative in the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and was an Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the UCSF School of Medicine.