Health in All Policies (HIAP): A Workshop for New Jersey March 18, 2013 Cook College Campus Center, Rutgers University Biographies Sylvia Bookbinder, MPH, Public Health Systems Coordinator, Office of Local Public Health, New Jersey Department of Health. Ms. Bookbinder has been working in public health in New Jersey since 1975, primarily with municipal and county health departments, and has consulted on special projects for the New Jersey Health Officers Association, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and Rutgers University. She joined the New Jersey Department of Health in 2003 as the Bioterrorism Education Coordinator in the Communicable Disease Service. There, Ms. Bookbinder was involved with health education activities related to bioterrorism, infectious diseases and emerging pathogens, with an emphasis on influenza pandemic planning. Since August 2010, she has been the Public Health Systems Coordinator in the Office of Local Public Health. Her primary responsibilities are to lead the revision of NJ Administrative Code 8:52 (Public Health Practice Standards) and to better connect the dots among public health partners to promote collaboration and coordination. Ms. Bookbinder received a Bachelor s degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Master s degree from Tulane University. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist and a licensed New Jersey Health Officer. In addition, she is a past president of the New Jersey Public Health Association and a former member of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association. Mayor Jim Cahill is the 62 nd Mayor of the City of New Brunswick. He has served continuously as Mayor since 1991. During his tenure as Mayor, New Brunswick has experienced an unprecedented wave of growth and investment that has transformed this once declining industrial City into a thriving 21ST Century Urban Center. Mayor Cahill spurred collaborations among the private sector, the City s health institutions, Rutgers University, Middlesex County, and the City s redevelopment partner, the New Brunswick Development Corporation, to propel the New Brunswick Renaissance forward with $2 billion invested in the construction of new residential, retail, office, educational and healthcare facilities. Today, these projects provide significant tax relief to homeowners by generating over $17.6 million in annual revenue to financially support government and community services and public schools. Mayor Cahill also worked to create new housing and homeownership opportunities throughout the City and provide funds for low and moderate-income residents to make needed repairs to their existing homes. Since Mayor Cahill took office, over 3,500 market-rate and affordable homes have been built or rehabilitated citywide, helping New Brunswick become New Jersey s fastest growing urban center, according to the 2000 Census. These economic successes have fueled tremendous job growth in New Brunswick. With over
6,000 new jobs created for New Brunswick residents, the City s annual unemployment rate is the lowest for New Jersey s urban centers. Jon A. Carnegie, AICP/PP, Executive Director of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and adjunct member of the faculty at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers. Mr. Carnegie has more than 19 years of experience in the fields of land use and transportation planning and policy at the municipal, county, and regional level. He has been, or currently serves, as the principal investigator for a variety of research and planning projects involving a range of transportation policy topics. Recently, Mr. Carnegie has been involved in study with the Georgetown Climate Center on an initiative working with the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states to develop tools and best practices for measuring reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. Mr. Carnegie is also the Project Director for a recently awarded HUD Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant led by the Rutgers-Bloustein School as the administrative and fiscal agent for Together North Jersey. For this three-year regional planning initiative, Together North Jersey will prepare a Regional Plan for Sustainable Development for the 13-county North Jersey region. The Plan will be both place-based and issue-based and use sustainability, transit system connectivity and Transit-Oriented Development as a central framework for integrating plans, regulations, investments, and incentive programs at all levels of government to improve economic and environmental conditions, while promoting resource efficiency and regional equity. Fatimah Williams Castro, PhD, Program Manager, New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids-New Brunswick, New Brunswick Tomorrow. Dr. Fatimah Williams Castro joined the New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids New Brunswick, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aimed at reducing childhood obesity, in June 2011. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Rutgers University. She has contributed to health research with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and has published extensively for her research on social movements, policy, and urban studies. She spent a number of years in Honduras, Central America where she taught English at an orphanage and in Colombia, South America while working on her dissertation. She is fluent in both English and Spanish languages. She serves on the Operations Committee of the New Brunswick Community Food Alliance, a local food policy council. Amelia Greiner, PhD, MS, Assistant Professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers. Dr. Amelia Greiner s research interests include the use of Health Impact Assessments and a Health in All Policies framework to inform policy and decision making in non-health sectors. Dr. Greiner's particular area of interest is the opportunities and challenges for developing health-promoting land use policy, particularly zoning policy. In addition to her land use work, she studies the presentation of risk and health information in the news media for issues that involve a complex interplay of environmental, social and economic concerns. She teaches an undergraduate course in Epidemiology and Health and Public Policy, and masters and doctoral courses in Qualitative Research Methods and Bridging Public Health and Urban Planning. From 2008-2012, Dr. Greiner served as a as the co-chair of the Education, Arts & Community Technical Advisory Committee for the STAR Community Index, a national framework and performance-management system that will allow local governments to measure and rate their sustainability performance. She earned her PhD at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society and an MS in Communication at Cornell University.
Jeanne Herb, Associate Director of the Environmental Analysis and Communications Group at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Ms. Herb leads a variety of projects and programs related to environmental policy and sustainability, including: Co-facilitating the NJ Climate Adaptation Alliance which is a private partnership that is building capacity in New Jersey to prepare for climate change impacts; Supporting the Transportation and Climate Initiative a 12-state effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector facilitated by the Georgetown Climate Center; Developing guidance on land use and other strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector and increase capacity to promote resilience for more than 100 communities in New York State; Engaging a five state regional stakeholder process to develop a transparent and public portal to support regional ocean planning, including engagement of citizens in participatory and consensus-based processes geospatial processes; Development of capacity in New Jersey for Health Impact Assessments and enhancement of capacity to apply integrated environmental public health data. Prior to joining the Bloustein School, Jeanne was Assistant Commissioner for Policy, Planning and Science at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. While at NJDEP, she oversaw programs related to climate change, environmental justice, sustainable development and green design, state planning, environmental health tracking, smart growth, and coastal and ocean policy. Leslie Meehan is the Director of Healthy Communities for the Nashville Area MPO. She specializes in active transportation policy, planning and education with a focus on the relationship between the built environment, transportation and health. Leslie is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and the Institute of Transportation Engineers. She works closely with the public health community and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Tennessee Obesity Taskforce. Peri L. Nearon, MPA, Director, Office of Nutrition & Fitness, Division of Family Health Services New Jersey Department of Health. Ms. Nearon is the first Director of New Jersey s Office of Nutrition & Fitness at the state health department. The office was established in 2007, and charged with addressing the obesity epidemic and promoting healthy communities through improved nutrition and increased opportunities for physical activity throughout the State. Ms. Nearon s state service began in the Department of Human Services in 1986, and has included planning, policy and program implementation for children, adolescent, elderly and disabled populations. In 1996 she joined the Department of Health as the Administrator of the Statewide Respite Care Program, and was later appointed as the first Director of the Office on Women s Health, where she served for five years leading and coordinating women s health services for the State of New Jersey. Ms. Nearon has an undergraduate degree in psychology with a minor in women s studies, a graduate degree in public administration and nearly 30 years of experience with state government. Mary O Dowd, M.P.H., Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health. Commissioner O Dowd has wide ranging experience in the health care field with a focus on management and finances. Ms. O'Dowd served as Deputy Commissioner of the Department since March 2010. In that capacity she oversaw the areas of Healthcare Financing, Health Facilities Evaluation and Licensing, Senior Benefits and Utilization Management and Aging and Community Services. During O Dowd s time as Deputy Commissioner, New Jersey significantly increased its financial support to hospitals through the Department s Charity Care program and also reformed the program to
make it more equitable and predictable. Specifically, despite the unprecedented fiscal crisis facing the State of New Jersey, she led the effort to secure an $85 million increase in Charity Care funding for fiscal year 2011 as well as ensuring that funding for prescription drug assistance programs for New Jersey seniors was not reduced. Prior to serving as Deputy Commissioner, O Dowd previously served as Chief of Staff for the Department from January 2008 to March 2010. As Chief of Staff she managed a workforce of more than 1,800 employees and a budget of nearly $3 billion. In this role O Dowd shaped the Department s policy in the areas of health care delivery, senior services, public health, and emergency preparedness. Before joining the Department, Ms. O Dowd managed Revenue Cycle Operations for the Emergency Department at NYU Medical Center where she developed quality assurance programs to achieve goals related to productivity and financial metrics. Additionally, she worked as a Legislative Aide for the NJ General Assembly on education and healthcare issues, and as Assistant Vice President of Legislation & Policy with the New Jersey Hospital Association. Ms. O Dowd is a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University and holds a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She also completed a fellowship in hospital finance at NYU Medical Center. Ms. O Dowd currently serves on the Rutgers Institute for Women s Leadership Board and chairs the Institute for Women s Leadership Scholar s Program Alumnae Board. She was recently ranked number 2 on NJ Biz s 50 most powerful people in New Jersey Health Care. The Commissioner has received numerous awards for her efforts to improve health outcomes in the state. In June, the Commissioner was honored by the AARP for promoting high quality health care and programs that support independence, dignity and choice for all seniors. And in May, she received an award from the New Jersey Primary Care Association for her leadership in health care in the state. Keshia Pollack, Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Consultant, Health Impact Project. Dr. Pollack s primary research objective is to create safe and healthy environments where people live, work, play and during travel. She contributes to this area using injury epidemiology, health policy, health impact assessments, and public health practice. In her research, Dr. Pollack uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to identify risk factors for, and strategies to prevent, injuries related to occupation, obesity, sports and recreation, physical activity, and the built environment. Her interests include understanding how these issues impact vulnerable populations of all ages and the elimination of health disparities in these previously described areas. Ultimately, she aspires to translate the findings from her research to decision-makers to assist with formulating pragmatic prevention policies. To support this aspiration, through her commitment to public health practice, Dr. Pollack has served for five years, and will continue to serve, as a health policy advisor for an elected official in the Maryland House of Delegates. She is also engaging with policymakers at the state and federal levels to maximize the application of health impact assessments for the policymaking process. Anna Ricklin, Manager, Planning and Community Health Research Center, American Planning Association. Ms. Ricklin has managed APA s Planning and Community Health Research Center since December 2011. Prior to that, she worked on transit planning and bike projects with the Baltimore City Department of Transportation. She first became aware of the importance of the built environment to healthy living choices when she had a job promoting public transit, walking, and biking in Portland, Oregon, where she lived before attending the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and earning a Master's of Health Sciences. Margaret Round is a Senior Environmental Analyst in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health/Bureau of Environmental Health s (MDPH/BEH) Environmental Toxicology Program (ETP). The ETP evaluates acute and chronic health impacts associated with chemical contaminants that may be present in a variety of environmental media including air, water, soil, fish, and some consumer products. She has more than 20 years of experience working on potential public health impacts and related regulatory issues associated with exposure to air
pollutants including air toxics. Since 2004, Ms. Round has been the project manager of a large-scale MDPH health study of Logan Airport in Boston. She is also working with Massachusetts Department of Transportation to pilot a health impact assessment of a transportation planning study in Somerville, Massachusetts. She is actively involved in the bureau s implementation of an environmental health surveillance network and on a project that is evaluating local public health capacity to reduce health impacts of climate change in Massachusetts. Prior to working at MDPH/BEH, Ms. Round worked for 15 years at Northeast States Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) on implementation of state and national air toxic regulations. During this period, Ms. Round was responsible for a study that led to a bi-national framework involving the Northeast states and Eastern Canadian Provinces for reducing mercury emissions. Ms. Round has a Bachelor of Science degree in Toxicology from Northeastern University. Kate Rube, Transportation Program Manager, Project for Public Spaces. Ms. Rube is an urban planner with expertise in smart growth, active living, and transportation issues. She has led many efforts to build coalitions across different sectors, organize workgroups and training programs, and provide technical assistance to local organizations and governments in order to advance sustainable community goals. Previously, she worked as the Active Design National Training Manager for New York City s inter-agency Active Design program, where she developed and ran a peer mentoring and training program for municipalities across the country on how to design communities and streets that encourage walking, bicycling, and other physical activity. In this role, she organized trainings and workshops for more than 1,200 people. She provided resources and technical assistance on a range of active living issues, including fostering inter-agency partnerships, building political support, and policy opportunities. Ms. Rube served as the Director of Government Affairs & Outreach for Smart Growth America from 2007-2010, where she organized a coalition of more than 60 national, state, and local organizations. She led policy development and advocacy on sustainable communities, housing, transportation, and environmental issues. During her time at Smart Growth America, Kate helped develop and build support for performance-based transportation planning policy, as well as legislation integrating climate change goals in transportation policy. She helped to organize development of the Transportation for America campaign, a broad national coalition for federal transportation reform. Kate formerly worked for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group as the Assistance National Field Director, where she coordinated the organization s strategy to build political, public and stakeholder support on a range of federal environmental issues. Kenneth D. Smith, Ph.D., received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he studied population and health economics. He has over 10 years of experience as a researcher, with expertise in health care financing, applied econometric methods, program evaluation and design, and the health professional workforce. More recently, he was the Director of the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention for the Philadelphia Public Health Department, where he helped facilitate policy, systems, and environmental change to improve access to healthy, affordable food and safe spaces for physical activity and play. As Lead Senior Program Analyst for NACCHO, Dr. Smith provides technical assistance to members on land-use and transportation planning and chronic disease prevention and management. He provides technical assistance to local health departments nation-wide, including the Big Cities Chronic Disease Community of Practice for Chronic Disease Prevention. Through one-on-one consultations, on-site and webinar trainings, facilitated peer-to-peer mentorship and policy brief development, Dr. Smith helps local health departments across the country build healthier communities. He directs projects on health impact assessment, health in all policies, and childhood obesity prevention.
Peter Summers, President, New Jersey Association of County & City Health Officials. Pete Summers has also been the Warren County Health Officer since 2010. Active in the field of public health since 1986, he previously served as the Health Officer of Morris County and East Hanover Township and also has worked for the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Mr. Summers did his undergraduate work in microbiology at Cook College, Rutgers University, and holds a master s degree in environmental management from Montclair State College. He has been a licensed Health Officer since 1991.