Members of the Working Group

Members included decision makers at local and national levels of government; public health officials who have responded to high-profile events; heads of community-based partnerships for public health and/or disaster mitigation; and subject matter experts in civic engagement, community development, risk communication, public health preparedness, disaster management, health disparities, and infectious diseases.

Roger H. Bernier, PhD, MPH
Senior Advisor for Scientific Strategy and Innovation, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA; Team Leader, Public Engagement Project on Community Control Measures for Pandemic Influenza
Dr. Bernier has worked in public health for more than 30 years at the local, national, and international levels. He recently completed a special assignment to explore how the immunization community could increase public participation in decision making about vaccines. This project resulted in a proposal to create the Vaccine Policy Analysis Collaborative (VPACE), an innovative model for integrating the input of citizens and scientists in examining critical policy topics in immunization. The model was successfully pilot tested in 2005 by seeking public engagement on a tough decision facing Americans: who to vaccinate first in the event of an influenza pandemic when vaccine supplies are limited. This initial success prompted VPACE’s application in 2006 to the policy questions of which non-pharmaceutical measures to implement early on to slow pandemic flu’s spread, and how to mitigate the adverse economic and social effects of these interventions. Dr. Bernier is the author or co-author of some 80 scientific articles or publications on vaccines and vaccine preventable disease topics. He has served on several important committees or advisory groups as both a member and chairman and has received several awards for both scientific and public health contributions during his career.

Arrietta Chakos
Assistant City Manager, City of Berkeley, CA
Ms. Chakos manages intergovernmental relations, community partnerships, and hazard mitigation efforts for the city of Berkeley, California. She works with Berkeley’s state and federal legislators on policy and funding matters and coordinates partnerships with the University of California, Berkeley, as well as other local and regional institutions. She is a seismic safety advocate who has worked since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to improve local and regional disaster readiness. Ms. Chakos has worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services on hazard mitigation projects, and she has served as a technical advisor on panels for FEMA and for its report to the Congress on mitigation funding, GeoHazards International, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the Association of Bay Area Governments, and Cornell University as well as on city commissions and university task forces dealing with seismic safety and hazard mitigation issues.

Caron Chess, PhD
Director, Center for Environmental Communication, Associate Professor, Department of Human Ecology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Dr. Chess’ research interests include methods to evaluate public participation and study the impact of organizational factors on public participation and risk communication, including communication about bioterrorism. She has served on the NRC’s Committee on Risk Characterization, Board on Radioactive Waste Management, and Committee on NIH Research-Priority Setting. She was recently voted president-elect of the Society for Risk Analysis and also serves as chair of her local environmental commission. Prior to her current position, Dr. Chess coordinated environmental programs for state government and environmental organizations, including playing a central role in the campaign for the country’s first public access right-to-know law. She has co-authored publications that are used widely by government and industry practitioners including Communicating with the Public: Ten Questions Environmental Managers Should Ask (which was named #1 on the Society for Risk Analysis’ must-read list for industry communicators) and Improving Dialogue with Communities: A Short Guide to Government Risk Communication.

Susan Craddock, PhD
Associate Professor, Institute for Global Studies and Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Dr. Craddock’s research lies at the intersection of global economies, new biotechnologies, and infectious disease. For the last several years she has looked at debates regarding access to antiretroviral drugs, including negotiations over the implementation of the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), and the human rights implications of having life saving drugs available but unaffordable to the majority who need them. Her most recent projects are collaborations on historical and current social politics behind responses to pandemic flu, the circulation of medical knowledge and representations of disease and the diseased, and tuberculosis among Somali communities in Minneapolis. Dr. Craddock’s publications include City of Plagues: Disease, Poverty, and Deviance in San Francisco (Minnesota Press 2000); HIV and AIDS in Africa (coedited, Blackwell 2004), Market Incentives, Human Lives, and AIDS Vaccines in Social Science and Medicine.

Kerry Fosher, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, New England Center for Emergency Preparedness, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH; Research and Practice Associate, Institute for National Security and Counter-Terrorism, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Law, Syracuse University, NY
Dr. Fosher is a security anthropologist who focuses on socio-cultural construction of ideas about security and its practice in specific arenas. She studies the interagency processes involved with policy implementation including network and social factors analysis, the role of institutional models in change, system building, and how practitioners create and use knowledge. Her current focus is civil-military interfaces in U.S. homeland security and emergency preparedness. Dr. Fosher seeks out research and work that bridge the academic/practitioner divide. She works with health and safety agencies in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont on preparedness programming and planning at the state and local levels and helps states translate federal policy into locally effective reality. As a Department of Homeland Security certified Master Exercise Practitioner, she provides guidance to planners on designing, conducting, and evaluating complex response exercises. She also conducts policy assessment at the local, state, and federal levels.

Crystal Franco
Analyst, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Baltimore, MD 
Ms. Franco’s policy research focuses on public health preparedness, hospital and medical preparedness, and health information technology. She also conducts research on the funding and management of civilian biodefense in the U.S. federal government and tracks developments in health information technology as it relates to biosecurity and biodefense. She is an associate editor of Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, and is Co-managing Editor of the Biosecurity Briefing, a weekly biodefense news update produced by the Center for Biosecurity. Ms. Franco has authored a number of articles, including a peer reviewed research paper analyzing the federal, state, and local medical response to Hurricane Katrina.

Peter B. Gudaitis, MDiv
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, New York Disaster Interfaith Services, New York, NY
Mr. Gudaitis has more than 15 years of experience in faith-based philanthropy, program management, and social services administration. From 1999–2003 he served as Associate Director of Episcopal Charities of the Diocese of New York, where he managed community-based outreach and youth grant programs. Following 9/11, he directed relief and recovery programs for the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and he has worked in the areas of institutional and EMS chaplaincy, congregational ministry, and social outreach program development. Mr. Gudaitis is a visible and committed leader within the New York City, state, and national disaster service communities, and he speaks nationally and internationally about interfaith services and faith-based disaster readiness and response and recovery services. He has extensive Emergency Medical Services experience and also has training in Mass Casualty Incident Command and Pediatric Trauma Care. He participates on a number of local and national boards and committees in a variety of capacities, such as the Board of Directors of the Institute for Disaster Spiritual Care, the Emotional & Spiritual Care Committee of National VOAD, the Board of Directors of NYC VOAD, the Disaster Preparedness Committee of the Human Services Council of New York City, and the Citizens Corps Council of New York City.

Gerard J. Hoetmer
Executive Director, Public Entity Risk Institute, Fairfax, VA
Mr. Hoetmer has served as Executive Director of the Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI) since May 1997. PERI is a dynamic, forward-thinking organization that serves as a resource to enhance the practice of risk management throughout organizations and communities. Serving public entities, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations, PERI provides relevant and high quality enterprise risk management information, training, data, and data analysis. Prior to joining PERI, Mr. Hoetmer served as Assistant Executive Director and Director of Research and Development for the International City/County Management Association, where he created, directed, and managed numerous programs over 19 years. He has served as an expert witness on fire service for numerous cities across the country, as well as before Congress.

Thomas V. Inglesby, MD
Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Baltimore, MD
Dr. Inglesby is an infectious disease physician by training, and is Coeditor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science. He has authored a number of widely cited publications on anthrax, smallpox, plague, and biosecurity issues related to medicine and hospital preparedness, public health, science, pandemic planning, and national security. He is a principal editor of the JAMA book entitled Bioterrorism: Guidelines for Medical and Public Health Management. Dr. Inglesby was a principal designer, author, and controller of the widely recognized Atlantic Storm exercise of 2005 and of the Dark Winter smallpox exercise of 2001. He has served in advisory and consultative capacities for government, scientific organizations, and academia on issues related to biosecurity—providing briefings for officials in the Administration and for Congressional members and staff; serving on a task force of the Defense Science Board of the DoD and a committee of the National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences; and participating in an advisory capacity to CDC, NIH, HHS, DHS, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).  Prior to helping establish the Center for Biosecurity in 2003, Dr. Inglesby was one of the founding members of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies, where he served as Deputy Director from 2001 to 2003.

Âna-Marie Jones
Executive Director, CARD - Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters, Oakland, CA
CARD coordinates, trains, and supports community service organizations in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery activities, and serves as lead and fiscal agent for several other preparedness programs serving the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo. Before joining CARD in April 2000, Ms. Jones worked for 3 years for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Coastal Region on projects supporting community organizations and people with special needs. She was also the acting Executive Director of the Northern California Disaster Preparedness Network, a 5-year funding initiative dedicated to creating emergency preparedness and response resources for vulnerable and special needs communities. Ms. Jones serves on several emergency preparedness/response planning programs and committees. In November 2003 and in January 2005, at the request of the Japanese government and Japanese research institutes, Ms. Jones toured Tokyo and Kobe, sharing CARD’s disaster preparedness curriculum with government, emergency management, university, and nonprofit leaders. In March 2005, Ms. Jones joined the faculty of UC Berkeley’s Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness. Since Hurricane Katrina, she has served as a resource for health departments, elected officials, international relief agencies, funders, and media representatives regarding simple solutions for addressing the preparedness concerns of diverse, special needs, and marginalized communities. She is a passionate advocate for ending America’s disaster victim cycle and building resilient communities, where even the most vulnerable members will survive, thrive, and prosper in the face of disasters and emergencies.

Carol S. Jordan, RN, MPH
Director, Communicable Disease and Epidemiology, Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, Silver Spring, MD
Carol Jordan is a nurse by training, has a master’s degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, and has worked for more than 25 years in local public health and in international health programs in Pakistan, Thailand, and Haiti. She was inducted into the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society, Alpha Chapter, at Johns Hopkins University in 1997. Her programs in public health have been recognized by the Harvard University School of Public Health with the Ford Foundation Award.

Sarah Landry, MS
Director, Public Policy-Vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline, Washington, DC
Ms. Landry oversees public policy for domestic immunization issues at both the federal and state levels. Prior to her job with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Ms. Landry served as Associate Director of Policy in the National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO), which provides a leadership role in working with HHS and other federal agencies, nongovernmental offices and organizations, states, municipalities, healthcare providers, and industry to ensure a coordinated national vaccine effort. As Associate Director of Policy, Ms. Landry worked closely with other agencies to ensure that department priorities and policies regarding vaccine issues were consistently achieved, and she helped coordinate the development of the National Pandemic Influenza Plan. In addition, she co-chaired the cross-agency HHS Pandemic Influenza Communications Taskforce and was responsible for coordinating the development of a strategic communications and public engagement plan. Previously, Ms. Landry worked in communication and science policy at NIAID for 12 years and gained experience in HIV/AIDS, global health, vaccine safety, emerging infectious diseases, and biodefense research. She developed several strategic planning documents in areas such as genomics, malaria, tuberculosis, and biodefense, for which she received recognition by the government and associations. In addition, Ms. Landry was the editor of the 20th edition of the Jordan Report, which is recognized as the authoritative guide on the state of vaccine research. She has received numerous awards recognizing her contributions to HHS.

Jan Lane
Deputy Director, Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI), The George Washington University, Washington, DC
The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) is a unique, nonpartisan “think and do tank” that builds bridges between theory and practice to advance homeland security through a multidisciplinary approach. Ms. Lane oversees HSPI’s policy development and research efforts and grant-funded training, including programs for first responders and healthcare professionals. In her role as Deputy Director, she interacts with federal, state, and local government officials, private sector partners, and the NGO community in the accomplishment of the Institute’s mission and goals. From 1990 through 2005, Ms. Lane worked for the American Red Cross, most recently serving as the Vice President of Public Policy and Strategic Partnerships at National Headquarters, where she was responsible for the development and communication of Red Cross positions on public policy issues at all levels of government, and she oversaw strategies to accomplish the Red Cross’s legislative and regulatory goals in Congress, in the Executive Branch, and at the state level. A major focus of her work was collaborating with the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services to engage nongovernmental organizations in support of emergency preparedness and response and public health initiatives. As Vice President of Government Relations for the Red Cross from 1999 through 2004, Ms. Lane led the development of policy positions in biomedical services, disaster preparedness and response, and international relief and development, and she worked with the Department of Defense in support of Armed Services Emergency Communications. She joined the American Red Cross in 1990, serving as Director of State Relations in Illinois, one of the first state relations programs for the organization. In 1994, Ms. Lane moved to congressional affairs and represented Red Cross Biomedical Services on Capitol Hill. Prior to joining the American Red Cross, Ms. Lane served in the Office of the Majority Leader of the Pennsylvania Senate, the administration of Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh, and the District Office of Congressman Bob Michel (R-IL). 

Diane Lapson
President, Independence Plaza North Tenant Association; Member, New York City Community Board #2; Panel Member, New York City Department of Health - 9/11 Health Survey
Ms. Lapson lives 3½ blocks from the World Trade Center site, in Tribeca, New York City, and is President of the Independence Plaza North Tenant Association (IPNTA). IPNTA is a large housing complex with more than 3,500 people of all ages and denominations. Ms. Lapson is very active in the Lower Manhattan community, and serves as secretary for the World Trade Center Residents Coalition. She co-founded the very reputable 9/11 Environmental Action Group, she participated in the rebuilding process downtown, and she is involved in helping to preserve affordable housing in New York City. Although Ms. Lapson took the lead in organizing and advocating for the care of thousands of people on September 11, 2001, and for the 10 critical days that followed, until recently she had no training in emergency response. On April 11, 2005, Ms. Lapson was one of the first to complete Tribeca’s Citizens Emergency Response Team training. (CERT teams are trained by Citizens Corps, coordinated nationally by the Department of Homeland Security.) Ms. Lapson has been employed in the music publishing and entertainment business for 31 years.

Onora Lien, MA
Mass Fatality Response Manager,  Public Health - Seattle & King County, Seattle, WA
Ms. Lien provides strategic direction for and oversees the development of policies and procedures related to mass fatality response, including scene and morgue operations, establishing a family assistance center and coordinating provision of psycho-social support, for a county of nearly 2 million residents. Prior to joining Public Health – Seattle & King County, Ms. Lien served as a research analyst with the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC. Broadly, her research and work concerned how individuals, communities, and organizations prepare for and respond to public health emergencies, and included a national study of public communication experiences during the anthrax attacks, a study of volunteer participation and experiences in New York City following the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, and research investigating the role of public–private partnerships in public health emergency planning. Ms. Lien was a member of the Working Group on Governance Dilemmas in Bioterrorism Response and a co-author of the working group’s report, “Leading during Bioattacks and Epidemics with the Public’s Trust and Help”, published in Biosecurity and Bioterrorism. She was also a principal member of the project team that produced How to Lead during Bioattacks with the Public’s Trust and Help: A Manual for Governors, Mayors and Top Health Officials. Ms. Lien has served as an advisor to the Baltimore City Department of Health on public and risk communication and to community-based volunteer groups involved in emergency preparedness education and outreach.

Natasha Manji
Senior Communications Advisor, Communications Directorate, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Ms. Manji is responsible for delivering a public involvement strategy for pandemic influenza planning, including an upcoming national consultation process with stakeholders and citizens on the topic of antivirals for prophylaxis. Upon joining the Agency in April 2005, Natasha managed a national consultation process for developing public health goals for Canada. The process included stakeholder consultations in 12 provinces and territories across Canada, a series of expert consultations, citizen dialogue sessions and a youth engagement strategy. Prior to her work at the Public Health Agency of Canada, Natasha was part of the Communications team at Canadian Blood Services. Her responsibilities there included managing communications for Canada’s Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry, managing crisis communications activities, developing an internal and external diversity plan through a series of consultations with various ethno-cultural groups across Canada, and working closely with the organization’s Public Involvement program to evolve their national and community liaison programs.

Linda J. Neff, PhD
Senior Science Officer, Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Dr. Neff serves as the principal investigator for a study to evaluate the pre-placement of countermeasures in individual homes. She has been working in bioterrorism preparedness and emergency response since January 2003. She served as Senior Epidemiologist in the U.S. Smallpox Preparedness and Response Activities in the National Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control. She has served as the lead for several initiatives to develop and implement national policy for preparedness and emergency response, and she is currently evaluating the nation’s capacity to rapidly distribute medical countermeasures into a community. She has received several awards for her work in public health, including the Emily Thompson Memorial Award for her research in women’s health. Dr. Neff has published more than 60 scientific articles and book chapters, and has provided key contributions to community health.

Jennifer Nuzzo, SM
Senior Analyst, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Baltimore, MD
A public health professional by training, Ms. Nuzzo’s research focuses on disease mitigation strategies for pandemic influenza as well as issues related to water security, international preparedness, mass critical care and hospital preparedness. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Ms. Nuzzo is an associate editor of the peer-reviewed journal, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, and Co-managing Editor of the Biosecurity Briefing, a weekly internet-based news update. Ms. Nuzzo has published in the scientific literature on waterborne pathogens and has co-authored several manuals on environmental policy and planning. In addition to her work at the Center for Biosecurity, Ms. Nuzzo serves as a project advisor for the American Water Works Association Research Foundation, a primary funding organization for drinking water research in the United States. She also was a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Security Working Group, which advised the National Drinking Water Advisory Council. Ms. Nuzzo joined the Center for Biosecurity at its founding in 2003. Prior to that, she served as a research analyst with the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2002 and 2003, Ms. Nuzzo served as a public health epidemiologist for the City of New York, where she was involved with disease and syndromic surveillance efforts related to the City’s Waterborne Disease Risk Assessment Program. Central to her duties in New York was the management of the city’s drug sale monitoring program for surveillance of diarrheal illness.

Ann Patton
Ann Patton Company, LLC; Founding Director, Tulsa Partners Inc., Project Impact, and Citizen Corps, Tulsa, OK
Mrs. Patton is a writer, consultant, and program director who has more than 30 years of experience in journalism and government focused on public policy, urban affairs, hazard management, and grassroots community building. She heads Ann Patton Company, LLC, a professional consulting firm, and she also works with the Federal Emergency Management Agency specializing in mitigation and long-term recovery planning. She spent 7 months working in Florida on hazard mitigation after the 2004 hurricanes and 2 months in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Mrs. Patton is Founding Director of the nationally commended Tulsa Partners, which includes Tulsa’s Citizen Corps, Medical Reserve Corps, and Project Impact; and Tulsa Partners, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation working to create sustainable communities. This family of programs mobilizes public-private partners and volunteers to create safer, more livable communities and to curb losses from terrorism, crime, and natural disasters. Mrs. Patton is a member of the McReady Oklahoma! Committee and is secretary for the Board of Direction of the national Multihazard Mitigation Council. She began her career as a community activist, and her work experience includes serving as a newspaper reporter, technical writer, staff to local and state elected officials, community affairs manager for Tulsa’s Public Works Department, and director of Tulsa Project Impact/Citizen Corps/Tulsa Partners. Mrs. Patton was a charter member of the team that created Tulsa’s award-winning flood-hazard mitigation program, which has led the nation since FEMA began rating communities in 1992. FEMA gave Mrs. Patton its top national public services award in 1998. She won Oklahoma’s Ben Frizzell Award for leadership in 2003. In 2004 the Oklahoma Floodplain Managers Association gave her its lifetime achievement award; Tulsa Partners Inc. gave her the J.D. Metcalfe Building Bridges Award for community service; and the City of Tulsa named an open-space floodplain park “Ann Patton Commons” in her honor.

Kristina Peterson, MDiv, STM
Founding Member, Grand Bayou Families United; Doctoral Research Assistant, Center for Hazards Assessment Response and Technology, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Ms. Peterson has been a community activist for 35 years. Her interest is in working with marginalized and at-risk communities following disasters, helping them to develop the capacity to be sustainable communities. Her current work includes finding patterns of coastal community resiliency as part of her doctoral work at the University of New Orleans, Center for Hazards Assessment and Risk Technology (CHART). For the past 4 years she has been working with Grand Bayou, Louisiana, a Native American fishing community, facilitating a collaborative process between the community and outside experts whose collective vision is a healthy, sustainable, culturally intact coastal community. She is the pastor of Bayou Blue Presbyterian Church, is married to Richard L. Krajeski, and lives in a working warehouse in Houma, Louisiana.

Barry W. Scanlon
Partner, James Lee Witt Associates; former Director of Corporate Affairs and Special Assistant to the Director, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC
Prior to joining JLWA, Mr. Scanlon served a number of roles at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), including the presidentially appointed Director of Corporate Affairs and Special Assistant to the Director. He oversaw the creation, development, and growth of the "Project Impact" initiative, a $100 million joint public/private sector initiative to prevent damage caused to America's communities by natural disasters. Mr. Scanlon led an effort that secured more than 5,000 corporate partners for the initiative, developed brand marketing relationships or joint ventures with Fortune 500 companies such as Home Depot, Fannie Mae, Visa, Solutia, State Farm, and BellSouth, and leveraged more than $50 million through corporate partners to promote "Project Impact." His recruitment strategy resulted in the growth of the initiative to more than 200 communities.

Monica Schoch-Spana, PhD
Chair, Working Group on Community Engagement in Health Emergency Planning; Senior Associate, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Baltimore, MD
Dr. Schoch-Spana, a medical anthropologist, leads research, education, and advocacy efforts to encourage greater consideration by authorities of the general public’s capacity to confront bioattacks and large-scale epidemics constructively. She was the principal organizer for the 2006 U.S.-Canada summit on "Disease, Disaster & Democracy—The Public’s Stake in Health Emergency Planning," and the 2003 national summit, "Leadership during Bioterrorism: The Public as an Asset, Not a Problem." She chaired the Working Group on “Governance Dilemmas” in Bioterrorism Response, which issued consensus recommendations to mayors, governors, and top health officials nationwide in 2004. Archival and ethnographic case studies inform Dr. Schoch-Spana’s perspective on community reactions to public health and terrorist crises, including the anthrax attacks of 2001, the World Trade Center attack of 2001, the NYC West Nile Virus outbreak of 1999, and the 1918 influenza pandemic. Dr. Schoch-Spana has authored numerous book chapters, articles, and practical guides on societal preparedness and public response to terrorism and large-scale epidemics, and she has briefed numerous federal, state, and local officials on critical issues in biosecurity. Her national advisory roles include serving on the Steering Committee of the Disaster Roundtable of the National Research Council (NRC) and with the NRC Committees on “Educational Paradigms for Homeland Security” and “Standards and Policies for Decontaminating Public Facilities Affected by Exposure to Harmful Biological Agents: How Clean is Safe?”

Stephen B. Thomas, PhD
Director, Center for Minority Health (CMH), Philip Hallen Professor of Community Health and Social Justice, Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Dr. Thomas is one the nation’s leading advocates in the effort to eliminate health disparities based on race. He currently serves as Director of CMH, an organization that is committed to taking a lead role in the nation's prevention agenda to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities as described in Healthy People 2010. CMH believes that the elimination of health disparities depends upon trusting community partnerships that are designed to increase the participation of minority populations in biomedical and public health research. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Thomas has applied his expertise in behavioral science and health education in the African American community to address several critical public health issues including, but not limited to, HIV/AIDS, youth violence, substance abuse and the need for more organ and tissue donations among African Americans. In 1995, he was a consultant to the National Research Council, Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Preventing HIV Transmission: The Role of Sterile Needles and Bleach. In 1998, he was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Reducing the Odds: Prevention Perinatal Transmission of HIV in the United States. In 1997, he was an invited guest at the White House ceremony for the Presidential Apology to Survivors of the Syphilis Study at Tuskegee.  Dr. Thomas came to Pittsburgh in 2000 after eight years at Emory University in Atlanta where he was associate professor in the department of behavioral sciences and health education, and director, Institute for Minority Health Research at Rollins School of Public Health. He has also held faculty positions at the University of Maryland, where he was co-founder and director of the Minority Health Research Laboratory; Southern Illinois University; and the University of North Carolina.

Kathleen Tierney, PhD
Professor of Sociology and Director, Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Dr. Tierney is Co-director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a DHS academic “Center of Excellence" established in 2005. As such she coordinates the activities of the START, working on the societal dimensions of terrorism, which focus on such topics as risk perception and communication; household, organizational, and community terrorism preparedness within the U.S.; and behavioral and psychosocial consequences of terrorism. She is also Director of The Natural Hazards Center, an organization which has served since 1976 as the nation’s clearinghouse for information on the societal dimensions of hazards, disasters, and risk. Prior to her move to Colorado in 2003, she was Professor of Sociology and Director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. For more than 25 years, Dr. Tierney has conducted research on social and behavioral responses to extreme events, including major earthquakes in California and Japan, floods in the Midwest, Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew, and other natural and technological disaster events. While at the Disaster Research Center, she directed a study on the organizational and community response in New York following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Following Hurricane Katrina, the Natural Hazards Center funded 25 quick-response studies in the Gulf region. Additionally, she provided advice and feedback to Congressional committees charged with investigating Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Tierney is the author of dozens of publications.

Christiana Usenza
Research Analyst Intern, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Baltimore, MD 
Ms. Usenza served as Research Analyst Intern for the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC, where her focus was on engaging community partners in public health emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. She served as a staff member to the Working Group on Citizen Engagement in Health Emergency Planning, and also served as a contributor to the Biosecurity Briefing, the Center’s weekly biosecurity news update. Presently she is applying to a graduate program in sustainable development, with an emphasis in community design and social action. Prior to her internship at the Center for Biosecurity, Ms. Usenza earned an interdisciplinary bachelor's degree from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD, where her studies included anthropology, music, and dance, and where she conducted enthographic research on the history and status of American gospel music in black churches. At Goucher, Ms. Usenza led a number of student arts programs with an emphasis on culture and dance.

Elaine Vaughan, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA    
Dr. Vaughan’s research includes public understanding and use of scientific risk information, socioeconomic context of exposure and response to environmental risk, the interplay among cultural values/beliefs and emotional or cognitive response to risk, risk communication, risk perceptions of culturally diverse populations, and measurement and statistical issues that arise when studying psychosocial phenomena across diverse populations. A current longitudinal field experiment assesses the effects of participatory decision strategies for high priority waste sites on social conflict and community response to risk. Dr. Vaughan recently published articles on risk communication and individual and community response to bioterrorism. She has served on numerous national and state committees evaluating societal risk management and risk communication including the National Research Council’s Committee on Risk Characterization, the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Protecting the Health of Deployed Troops, the University of California’s Scientific Advisory Panel on the Disposal of Low Level Radioactive Waste, and California’s Project on Comparative Risk Policy.

Miriam Wyman, MES
Chief Executive Officer, Practicum Limited, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Ms. Wyman is principal of Practicum Limited, a Toronto-based consulting firm specializing in public consultation and facilitation. She is a recognized expert in the field and has worked at local, national, and international levels to promote dialogue and deliberation in practice and policy. For nearly 30 years, her work has focused on involving people and communities in decisions that affect their lives and on ways that citizens can contribute to enhancing democracy. A Research Associate with the Public Involvement Network, her association with the Canadian Policy Research Networks  (CPRN) began in 1998 when she was project coordinator for The Society We Want, CPRN's first public/deliberative dialogue project. She is an active member of the Steering Committee of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and the Citizens and Governance Programme Team of the Commonwealth Foundation, and was appointed to the (short-lived) Minister’s Advisory Committee on Democratic Renewal in the Ontario Office of the Attorney General. Among her many projects, she was instrumental in catalyzing Listening to Toronto, a now annual dialogue between the Mayor and citizens and, in 2005, was part of the evaluation team for the U.S. Public Engagement Pilot Project on Pandemic Influenza (PEPPPI). She is currently part of the planning team on public involvement in pandemic influenza for the Public Health Agency of Canada. In her research and practice, she draws on dialogue and deliberation in many parts of the world and played a major role, as Co-Chair, in organizing and promoting the first ever Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation held in October 2005 in Ottawa.