Julia Adler-Milstein is an Assistant Professor at the School of

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Participant Bios and Photos
Julia Adler-Milstein is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information with a
joint appointment in the School of Public Health (Health Management and Policy). Her research focuses on
policy and management issues related to the use of IT in healthcare delivery. Her expertise is in health
information exchange and she has conducted three national surveys of health information organizations.
She also studies the productivity and efficiency of electronic health records. Julia graduated with a PhD in
Health Policy from Harvard University. Prior to graduate school, she worked at the Center for IT Leadership
at Partners Healthcare in Boston and in the Health and Life Sciences Division of Accenture.

Dr. Lina Balluz is the branch chief for the Environmental Public Health Tracking Branch at CDC. She has
been with CDC for 17 years. She joined National Center for environmental Health from 1995-2002 as an
Epidemic intelligence service officer and for 5 years as epidemiologist. She has extensive experience in
environmental health. In 2002 Dr. Balluz joined the National Center for Chronic Diseases and Health
Promotion, Behavior Surveillance Branch (BSB) at CDC as the team leader for the Survey Operation and Data
Management Section. In 2009 she became the branch Chief for BSB where she direct the Behavior Risk
Factor Surveillance System and a number of high profile projects including Selected Metropolitan and
Micropolitan Area Risk Trends project, community-based interventions evaluation project (CPPW) and Chronic Disease and
Environment project. Prior to CDC, Dr. Balluz worked as senior Environmental epidemiologist at the Louisiana Department of
Health, and as a consultant for New Orleans City Health Department. Dr. Balluz holds a doctorate degree in public health from
Tulane University. She authored over 100 scientific articles with a focus on environmental health and chronic diseases and their
associated outcomes. She received numerous awards including an Honor award for outstanding commitment to CDC response
to H1N1, and an award for excellence in surveillance and statistical research.

Leslie M. Beitsch, MD, JD joined the faculty at the Florida State University College of Medicine in November
2003 as Professor of Health Policy and Director of the Center for Medicine and Public Health. He is currently
Associate Dean for Health Affairs. Before joining FSU, Dr. Beitsch was the Commissioner of the Oklahoma
State Department of Health. Dr. Beitsch served as Deputy Secretary and Assistant State Health Officer for
the Florida Department of Health from 1997-2001. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Beitsch was Assistant
State Health Officer and Division Director for Family Health Services and Medical Director of the Broward
County Health Department in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Current interests have focused on public health systems

and services research, accreditation, and quality improvement for state and local health departments.
Recently he completed three years of service to the Institute of Medicine Committee on Public Health
Strategies to Improve Health. He is on the board of directors of the Public Health Accreditation Board and is the Research and
Evaluation Committee Co-Chair. Dr. Beitsch is past chair of the board of directors for the Public Health Foundation (PHF) and
the Public Health Leadership Society. He has been recognized for his contributions by ASTHO (2007 Alumni Award) and PHF
(2008 Theodore Erwin Award).

Ellen Benavides was appointed in January 2011 to serve as assistant commissioner for the Minnesota
Department of Health. Her consulting credits include designing a pilot project to integrate financing,
housing, support services and managed care for homeless people diagnosed with mental health, substance
abuse and/or AIDS; directing a multi-year research project to quantify the costs and risks associated with
serving low income and vulnerable populations in a managed care system; and managing an education
campaign about the costs, trade offs and priorities inherent in Minnesotans’ health care spending decisions.
Benavides previously served as director of Health Policy for Hennepin County. She also served in Hennepin
County as director of the Medicaid Demonstration Project, a federal initiative to monitor and evaluate the impact of
transitioning from a fee-for-service to a managed-care system for Medicaid recipients. Benavides’ documentary film credits
include “Unclaimed Children Revisited,” which was commissioned by the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia
University and produced for the 24th Annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy. “Minnesota Confidential”
received the Minnesota Public Health Association’s Albert Justus Chesley Award. The film examines the potential repeal of the
Minor’s Access to Health Care Act of 1971. “Healthy Moms and Babies” is about Somali childbirth. Assistant Commissioner
Benavides earned a master’s degree in hospital and health care administration from the University of Minnesota and a
bachelor’s degree in physiological psychology from Carleton College.

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 1
Participant Bios and Photos
Jennifer Bernstein, J.D., M.P.H., is a staff attorney for the Mid-States Region of the Network for Public
Health Law. She was the first graduate of the University of Iowa’s JD/MPH dual degree program in 2009.
During her graduate studies, she served as a law and policy intern for the District of Columbia Primary Care
Association and as a research assistant for the National Health Law and Policy Resource Center. She is a
member of the Texas State Bar. Before joining the Network for Public Health Law, she worked as a
University of Texas Hogg Foundation Mental Health Policy Fellow, where she advocated for the statewide
expansion of trauma informed care for foster children in Texas.

Hunt Blair has just completed a four-year tenure as Vermont's State HIT Coordinator and as Deputy
Commissioner for Health Reform. Later this week, Hunt begins in a new role at ONC as Principal Advisor on
State-based, HIT-enabled Care Transformation. Hunt wore a number of hats in Vermont, working not just
on clinical IT but on the development of an integrated vision for an enterprise approach to implementing
the state’s new MMIS, eligibility, and insurance exchange systems. He is also one of the authors of
Vermont's delivery system focused health reform legislation and has been working since 2006 to bring that
policy into practice in communities. Hunt is active in the national HIT-HIE community, serving on the ONC
HIT Policy Committee Information Exchange Workgroup, the IOM Digital Learning Collaborative, and he co-chaired the
Statewide HIE Coalition. Previously, Hunt served as Vermont Director of Public Policy at Bi-State Primary Care Association,
Deputy Director of the VT Health Care Association, and as a licensed nursing home administrator. The New England Rural
Health Roundtable awarded Hunt its Leadership Award in 2008 for his work on Vermont health reform. He received an A.B. in
Semiotics from Brown University in 1983 and has been conducting post-structural analysis “deconstructing” U.S. healthcare’s
non-systems ever since.

Jeffrey S. Brown, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Medicine (DPM) at Harvard
Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. He is Research Director of the Therapeutics
Research and Infectious Disease program at DPM and Director of Scientific Operations for the FDA’s Mini-
Sentinel project. Dr. Brown is a health services researcher with expertise in pharmacoepidemiology and
drug safety, with primary research activities involving the development of new methodologies and
techniques to facilitate multi-institutional drug and vaccine safety surveillance using automated healthcare
administrative and claims data, including the application of sequential analytic and data mining
methodologies. Dr. Brown is the lead architect of PopMedNet, an open-source software platform that
facilitates the creation and operation large-scale distributed health data networks. He is co-chair of the Informatics Core of the
NCI Cancer Research Network and of the EHR Core of the NIH Health Care System Research Collaboratory. Dr. Brown holds a
Master’s degree in Economics from Tufts University and a PhD in Social Policy from Brandeis University. Jeff is a 7-time
national champion and 3-time world champion in Ultimate Frisbee.

Scott Burris, J.D., is a Professor of Law at Temple Law School, where he directs the Center for Health Law,
Policy and Practice, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Public Health Law Research program. He is
also Associate Director of the Centers for Law and the Public's Health: A Collaborative at Johns Hopkins and
Georgetown Universities. Burris began his career in public health law during the early days of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic. He was the editor of the first systematic legal analysis of HIV in the United States, AIDS and the
Law: A Guide for the Public (Yale University Press, 1987; NEW GUIDE FOR THE PUBLIC published 1993), and spent
several years lobbying and litigating on behalf of people with HIV as an attorney at the American Civil

Liberties Union. Since joining the Temple faculty in 1991, his research has focused on how law influences
public health and health behavior. He is the author of over 100 books, book chapters, articles and reports on issues including
discrimination against people with HIV and other disabilities; HIV policy; research ethics; and the health effects of criminal law
and drug policy. His work has been supported by organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Open
Society Institute, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has served as a
consultant on public health law with organizations ranging from the United Nations Development Programme and the
American Psychological Association to the Institute of Medicine and the producers of the Oscar-winning film Philadelphia. He is
a member of the Law, Policy and Ethics Core of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale, and serves as an
advisor to the Tsinghua University AIDS Institute, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Research Center for HIV/AIDS Public
Policy and the Program in Bioethics at Monash University. Burris is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and the
Yale Law School.

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 2
Participant Bios and Photos
Dr. Marcus Cheatham is the Health Officer at the Mid-Michigan District Health Department which
serves three counties north of Lansing, Michigan’s capital city. Although the health department is
rural, its Insight EMR is up and running and earning “meaningful use” incentive payments. Marcus
has been very active in the Great Lakes Health Information Exchange (GLHIE) serving on the HIE’s
Operation’s Committee, Privacy and Security Committee and Quality Improvement Committee.
Marcus is Co-Chair of the Joint Public Health Informatics Task Force (JPHIT) and is past Chair of the
National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) Informatics Work Group. Among
other things, Marcus served on the Michigan Health Information Network’s Technical Workgroup
which helped create Michigan’s State Health Information Exchange strategic and operational plans. Previously Marcus was a
chronic disease epidemiologist at the Ingham County Health Department and was Survey Director at the Institute for Public
Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University. He is determined to keep working on health information exchange
until the Behavioral Risk Factor survey is gone and replaced by real time clinical data.

Denise Chrysler, J.D., is Director of the Mid-States Regional Center of the Network for Public Health Law
(Network), located at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The Network assists public health
practitioners, attorneys, and advocates to use law to protect the public’s health. Previously, for 27 years,
she served in various positions to provide legal counsel to programs that protect the public’s health, safety
and welfare within the Michigan Departments of Community Health, Agriculture, and Environmental
Quality. Denise has provided legal expertise on many issues related to communicable disease, public health
hazards, privacy, health information exchange, and legal preparedness. Denise served for five years as the
state health department’s chief privacy officer, providing advice on an array of legal, ethical, and policy

issues regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of health information for public health purposes. Before
leaving state government, she worked extensively on the Michigan BioTrust Project, to make leftover
newborn screening dried blood spot specimens available for public health and medical research. She continues to support
these efforts by participating on state and national advisory groups.

Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., is currently Associate Director for Research in the Division of General Pediatrics and
Research Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Ms. Clark has more than ten
years of experience in both quantitative and qualitative pediatric health services research studies. Trained
in health behavior/health education at the University of North Carolina, Ms. Clark contributes expertise in
instrument design, behavior change theory, and qualitative research methods. Her previous work has
included studies of the attitudes and practices of immunization providers, evaluation of Medicaid policies
and programs, and evaluation of changes in health care delivery. As Associate Director for Research, Ms.
Clark is responsible for the oversight of funded projects conducted within the Division. She supervises research support staff,
and works closely with fellows and faculty on projects and proposals. Ms. Clark is a member of the Medical Center's
Institutional Review Board (IRBMED).

Jim Collins, MPH, is the Director of the Communicable Disease Division of the Michigan Department of Community Health. This
Division includes traditional infectious disease epidemiology, a contingent of Regional Epidemiologists, facilitators of cross
border health initiatives, anti-microbial resistance, respiratory, enteric, tuberculosis and blood borne disease epidemiology
specialists as well as staff working in support of a broad range of novel surveillance initiatives. In leading the development of
the Michigan Disease Surveillance System and the implementation of Michigan’s Syndromic Surveillance Initiative, he has
facilitated the creation of a new model for communicable disease surveillance in the State. These programs inherently involve
the integration of several partners from the local to federal level as well as coordination of activities among a variety of
technical development contracts. His experience in this capacity of public health has led to his inclusion on several national
workgroups that are defining the content of the Public Health Information Network initiative while functioning as agency lead
on public health integration of meaningful use standards. Jim has also been appointed as a Director on the Michigan Health
Information Network Shared Services Board, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to advancing health informatics in Michigan
and as a lecturer with the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Michigan State University. Jim received his
Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from Alma College in Michigan and went on to complete a Master of Public Health
Degree in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His public health experience includes twelve years of
service at a local public health agency. During that time Jim worked in a variety of capacities as a registered sanitarian and the
agency’s epidemiologist.

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 3
Participant Bios and Photos

Dr. Arthur Davidson, a family physician, is Director of Public Health Informatics, Epidemiology and
Preparedness at Denver Public Health, Denver Health. He was principal investigator of Colorado’s five-
year AHRQ-funded State and Regional Demonstration Project which resulted in development of the
Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO). He researches, advocates for and seeks to
build integrated informatics applications that support both clinical care and public health initiatives. He
serves as a member of a federal advisory committee, the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy
Committee to the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT. He also serves as a board member of the
National eHealth Collaborative and board chair of the Colorado Health Institute. He is an associate professor in the Schools of
Public Health and Medicine, University of Colorado Denver.

Corey Davis, J.D., M.S.P.H., Network for Public Health Law – Southeastern Region, is a staff attorney with the
National Health Law Program (NHeLP). Before joining NHeLP Corey served as Employment Rights Attorney
at Equality Advocates Pennsylvania where he represented lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
individuals before administrative commissions and in state and federal courts. Prior to joining Equality
Advocates Corey oversaw a street-based legal clinic sited at Philadelphia’s syringe exchange program. In
both of these positions he provided direct legal representation as well as education, outreach and strategic
advocacy. Corey has also worked for the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, the University of

Pennsylvania and the Drug Control and Access to Medicines Consortium in both research and management
capacities. He is the recipient of the International AIDS Society’s Young Investigator Award, given for empirical research on the
effect of law and law enforcement practice on access to an evidence-based public health intervention, and has published in the
lay and academic press. Corey received his B.S. from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, his M.S.P.H. from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his J.D. from Temple University, where he studied under Scott Burris. Corey is barred in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well as various federal courts.

Dr. Kevin Dombkowski’s research is focused on improving the effectiveness of health services to children,
particularly through access to adequate primary care services. His research includes studies aimed at
fostering appropriate preventive services for children with asthma and other chronic conditions, as well as
mechanisms to improve the timeliness of childhood vaccinations. Much of Dr. Dombkowski’s research
evaluates improvements to pediatric health services that are enabled through information technology
enhancements.
Dr. Dombkowski is active in several collaborations with the Michigan Department of
Community Health, including several CDC-funded interventions using the Michigan Care Improvement

Registry as well as a wide range of studies related to improving health outcomes among children with
asthma. In addition to his research interests, Dr. Dombkowski has extensive experience with health care information systems,
especially immunization registries and other public health data management systems. Prior to joining the University of
Michigan, he served as an information systems consultant to health care systems and public health agencies throughout
Michigan and the United States.

John J. Dreyzehner, MD, MPH, FACOEM, joined Governor Bill Haslam’s cabinet September 19, 2011, as the
12th Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health. A physician with over 20 years of service in
clinical and public health leadership at the federal, state and local levels. Dreyzehner began his medical
service in 1989 as a United States Air Force flight surgeon honorably discharged as a major in 1997. After
several years in the private practice of occupational medicine, he joined the Virginia Department of Health
in 2002. He concurrently practiced in the field of addiction medicine for several years while also working
on substance abuse prevention in his public health role. Dreyzehner graduated from the University of

Illinois at Champaign-Urbana Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in psychology. He received his
Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and earned his Master of Public Health
degree at the University of Utah, where he also completed his residency in Occupational Medicine at the Rocky Mountain
Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, board certified in 1999 and a Fellow of the American College of
Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He and his wife Jana, a child psychiatrist, have two sons.

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 4
Participant Bios and Photos
Seth Foldy is a physician and consultant on public health and health informatics. He recently completed a
two-year appointment as Distinguished Consultant at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
where he was Director of the Public Health Informatics and Technology Program Office. At CDC he
supported public health readiness for the widespread adoption of electronic health records and the
adoption of national standards for surveillance and laboratory information management. Previously Dr.
Foldy served as Health Commissioner in Milwaukee, WI and State Health Officer and Administrator of the
Wisconsin Division of Public Health. He was co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of the Wisconsin Health

Information Exchange, and has been medical director of ambulatory operations at MetroHealth Medical
System and at Milwaukee Healthcare for the Homeless. Dr. Foldy is board-certified in both Family and Preventive Medicine,
and holds appointments at the Medical College of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and the University of
Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He received the 2002 Roemer Prize for Creative Local Public Health from the
American Public Health Association among other honors.

Charles Friedman joined the University of Michigan as Professor and Director of the health informatics
program after 8 years of work for the federal government, prior to which he served for 26 years as a
university faculty member and administrator. Most recently, Dr. Friedman held executive positions at the
Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
From 2007 to 2009 he was Deputy National Coordinator and from 2009 to 2011 he was ONC's Chief Scientific
Officer. While at ONC, Friedman oversaw a diverse portfolio of nationwide activities that included a "learning
health system" supporting research, public health, and quality improvement; the health IT workforce
development program; the SHARP health IT research program; initiatives in usability and clinical decision
support; evaluation of ONC's programs; and international cooperation for eHealth. He was the lead author of
the first national health IT strategic plan which was released in June of 2008. From 2003 to 2006 he was a senior scholar at the
National Library of Medicine and from 2006 to 2007, he served as Associate Director for Research Informatics and Information
Technology of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, also serving as the Institute's chief information officer. Prior to his
work in the government, Dr. Friedman was Professor, Associate Vice Chancellor for Biomedical Informatics, and Founding
Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh. He was responsible for management of
information resources across the university's six schools of the health sciences. The center Friedman established at Pitt
subsequently became an academic department. He also served for many years in a range of faculty and administrative roles at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a professor in the departments of biomedical engineering and family
medicine in the School of Medicine; he directed the Office of Educational Development and served as Assistant Dean for
Medical Education and Medical Informatics.

Lance Gable, JD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Law at the Wayne State University Law School, where he
teaches Public Health Law, Bioethics and the Law, Torts, and other Health Law subjects.
Professor Gable’s research addresses the overlap between law, policy, ethics, health, and science. He has
published journal articles on a diverse array of topics including public health law, ethics, and policy;
international human rights; bioterrorism and emergency preparedness; mental health; research ethics; and
information privacy. He is also co-editor and co-author respectively of two books: Research with High Risk
Populations: Balancing Science, Ethics and the Law (American Psychological Association, 2009, with

Buchanan and Fisher) and Legal Aspects of HIV/AIDS: A Guide for Policy and Law Reform (World Bank Group,
2007, with Gamharter, Gostin, Hodge, and Van Puymbroeck). Professor Gable received a Juris Doctor from Georgetown
University Law Center and a Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also
received a Bachelors Degree in political science and biology from Johns Hopkins University.

Joe Gibson is the Director of Epidemiology at the Marion County Public Health Department, serving
Indianapolis, Indiana. He is chairs NACCHO’s informatics workgroups and represents ISDS on the
BioSense 2.0 governance group. He also works with the Regenstrief Institute to create public health
informatics tools that leverage the Indiana Health Information Exchange.

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 5
Participant Bios and Photos
Dr. Shaun Grannis is a Research Scientist with the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and Assistant Professor of
Family Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine. He received an Aerospace Engineering degree
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and underwent post-doctoral training in Medical
Informatics and Clinical Research at Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine. He
joined Indiana University in 2001 and collaborates closely with national and international public health
stakeholders to advance the technical infrastructure and data-sharing capabilities. Dr Grannis is a
member of World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for the Design, Application, and

Research of Medical Information Systems, where he provides consultancy on issues related to health
information system identity management; implementing automated patient record matching strategies; and collaborating with
WHO on the design, development, and implementation of enterprise medical record system architectures. Dr. Grannis recently
completed an analysis of automated regional electronic laboratory reporting that revealed substantial increases in the
electronic capture rates for diseases of public health significance when compared to traditional, manual, paper-based
procedures. Dr. Grannis is project director for an ongoing initiative integrating data flows from over 120 hospitals across the
state of Indiana for use in public health disease surveillance and clinical research. For the last 5 years this 24x7 system has
received real-time data from participating hospitals amounting to more than 2 million transactions per year, and has detected
public health outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness, carbon monoxide poisoning, and other events of interest to public health.
He oversees the development of an operational standards-based laboratory data interfaces between public health clinical
laboratories and an electronic clinical messaging application used by both public health officials and clinicians. As co-chair of
the U.S. Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) Population Health technical work group, Dr. Grannis helped
lead the development of technical Interoperability Specifications for nationally recognized public health IT use cases.

Julia Gunn has worked for the Boston Public Health Commission in the Communicable Disease Control Division for over 15
years, where she assumed the position of Director in 2008. During this time, Julia has contributed to dozens of publications
and presentations enhancing the understanding of communicable disease surveillance and response, tuberculosis, food-borne
illness, and other communicable illnesses. Her publications in syndromic surveillance publications include a cost study and
consensus process for syndrome definitions. Julia played a key role in developing and integrating the enhanced surveillance
systems in Boston including the EARS based syndromic surveillance system and patient tracking for mass casualty events. In
2009, the Boston syndromic surveillance system was awarded the HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence. Julia has
been a member of numerous public health committees including president of the International Society for Disease Surveillance
and the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommitee. Ms Gunn currently serves on NACCHO's Biosurveillance workgroup.

Monica S. Hammer is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Visiting Attorney with the Mid-States Region
Network for Public Health Law. In her current project regarding environmental noise pollution, she is
exploring the need for data to assess the public health impact and evaluate the efficacy of potential
solutions. In her previous position as a legislative aide to a senior Chicago Alderman, Monica created
community health policy recommendations and worked with elected officials at the local, state and
Congressional levels. She obtained funding for, monitored, and evaluated a pilot program that created a
cost savings of over $60,000 per patient, eliminating over seven million dollars in costs to government in
the course of one year. Her work on mental illness and nursing homes set in motion enforcement actions
regarding Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Prior to her municipal experience, Monica worked at a law firm specializing in lesbian,
gay and transgender family law and at the Farm Worker Unit of Legal Aid. Before law school, she investigated the public health
implications of immunization policies and provider choice through research in economics at the University of California at Irvine
School of Business. Monica earned her B.A. in Economics from Carleton College and her J.D. from the University of Washington
School of Law. She is a member of the California and Illinois State Bars.

Lacey A. Hart, MBA, PMP® Mayo Clinic; Director for the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery -
Project Management Office. Ms. Hart is a Project Management Institute certified project manager with a
Masters in Business Administration. She directs a large portfolio of research programs including the
HHS/Office of the National Coordinator for Healthcare IT (ONC) Strategic health IT Advanced Research
Projects (SHARP) on Secondary EHR Data Use and the Beacon grant for Southeast Minnesota in addition to
a CMMI Health Care Innovation Award, the NIH/NHGRI (eMERGE) and National Cancer Institute (NCI)
caBIG projects.

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 6
Participant Bios and Photos
Jane Herwehe, MPH, is a Project Director at Louisiana State University HCSD. Ms. Herwehe possesses 23 years of experience in
public health, the last 20 of these in the management of programs in HIV/AIDS care. Experience includes implementation and
evaluation of collaborative clinical programs. Jane serves as a Special Studies Coordinator with the Louisiana State University
(LSU) public hospital system. With LSU, she directs various systems’ level disease management initiatives for the Chief Medical
Officer and manages collaborative projects of the LSU hospital system and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
public health programs. She has directed two HRSA-funded Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) initiatives
evaluating the impact of information technology and electronic networks on HIV care. Currently, she directs the HRSA-funded
SPNS electronic networks of care demonstration project known as the Louisiana Public Health Information Exchange (LaPHIE).
She has served as an advisory member of the Louisiana HISPC project and worked closely with the National Alliance on Health
Information Technology on the development of methodology for qualitative research on the consumer perspectives on EHRs
and sharing of electronic PHI. In addition to her public health training, she has completed course work and certification in
BioMedical Informatics sponsored by the Nat’l Library of Medicine and public health informatics sponsored by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.

Professor James Hodge teaches Health Law, Ethics, and Policy, Public Health Law and Ethics, and Global
Health Law and Policy at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. In September 2010, he was named
Director of the Western Region Office of the Network for Public Health Law, one of five centers nationally
funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The Western Region Office provides extensive
technical assistance and other services to public health lawyers, public health officials, practitioners and
others across 11 states. Professor Hodge also directs ASU’s Public Health Law and Policy Program, a leading
academic center of scholarship and service in public health law and policy nationally. Professor Hodge has

published more than 100 articles in prestigious journals of law, medicine, public health and bioethics, as well
as serving as editor of two symposium issues of the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics on global and public health law. The
recipient of the 2006 Henrik L. Blum Award for Excellence in Health Policy from the American Public Health Association,
Professor Hodge has drafted (with others) several public health law reform initiatives, including the Model State Public Health
Information Privacy Act, the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, the Turning Point Model State Public Health Act, and
the Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act. Professor Hodge is a national expert on public health emergency
legal and ethical preparedness and public health information privacy law and policy. His work on these and other topics has
been cited in major national newspapers, numerous regional newspapers, social media cites, and prestigious journals including
Science, JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, and the American Journal of Public Health. He is currently on the board of
the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics.

Sharona Hoffman, J.D., LL.M., is the Edgar A. Hahn Professor of Law and a Professor of Bioethics at Case
Western Reserve University School of Law. She is also the Co-Director of the Law School’s Law-Medicine
Center. Professor Hoffman received her B.A. magna cum laude from Wellesley College, her J.D. cum laude
from Harvard Law School, and an LL.M. in health law from the University of Houston. Professor Hoffman
teaches Health Law courses, Employment Discrimination, and Civil Procedure. She has worked closely with
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute of Medicine, the Agency for HealthCare
Research & Quality, and other prestigious national organizations. She has lectured throughout the United
States and internationally and has been widely quoted in the press, including in USA Today, The Los Angeles
Times, and The New York Times. Professor Hoffman has published over fifty articles and book chapters, most of which focus on
health law and civil rights law. Her most current research focuses on the legal and ethical implications of health information
technology.

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 7
Participant Bios and Photos
Gail A. Horlick, MSW, JD, is a Senior Legal Analyst in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Office of Scientific Integrity. She has been at CDC since 1993. She provides guidance to public health
practitioners on the impact of privacy legislation and policies on public health practice and research. In
prior positions, Ms. Horlick facilitated the development of confidentiality policies for immunization
registries, and she provided guidance on laws regulating vaccination of healthcare workers. She also
teaches at Georgia State University. Ms. Horlick serves as Staff to the National Committee on Vital and
Health Statistics Subcommittee on Privacy, Confidentiality and Security. She is a member of the CDC Public

Health Ethics Committee, the CDC Law and Science Advisory Group, and she serves on several workgroups
related to privacy and data sharing. She has been a speaker at numerous conferences she has authored
several peer-reviewed publications. Ms. Horlick received her law degree from Georgia State University College of Law, her
Masters in Social Work degree from the University of Maryland School of Social Work and Community Planning, and her B.A.
from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Peter D. Jacobson is Professor of Health Law and Policy in the Department of Health Management and
Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Director, Center for Law, Ethics, and Health. He
received his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1970, and a Masters in Public
Health from UCLA in 1988. Before coming to the University of Michigan, he was Senior Behavioral Scientist
at RAND from 1988 to 1996. His current research interests focus on the relationship between law and
health care delivery and policy, law and public health systems, and health care safety net services. In 1995,
he received an Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to
examine the role of the courts in shaping health care policy. The project culminated in the publication of
the book Strangers in the Night: Law and Medicine in the Managed Care Era (Oxford University Press,
2002). Jacobson co-authored a law school casebook with Lawrence O. Gostin titled Law and the Health System (Foundation
Press, 2005), and is also a co-author of False Hope vs. Evidence-Based Medicine: The Story of a Failed Treatment for Breast
Cancer (Oxfo rd University Press, 2007). He is currently the Associate Editor for Health Law and Public Health for the Journal of
Health Politics, Policy and Law. Professor Jacobson's current research interests focus on the relationship between law and

health care delivery, law and public health systems, public health ethics, and health care safety net services. For instance, he

has led recent studies examining public health entrepreneurship, the impact of state and federal law on public health
preparednes s, and enhancing organizational and operational efficiencies in Michigan's health care safety net providers.

Bryant Thomas Karras, MD, Chief Public Health Informatics Officer and Senior Epidemiologist at State of

Washington Department of Health joined the agency from the University of Washington in 2008 where he
had been faculty for 8 years. He is a Physician, an Engineer and Public Health Informatician. He has a
technical, business process, and problem-solving approach with a background in Biomedical Engineering
(University of California San Diego), Internal Medicine (University of Wisconsin) and Medical Informatics

(Yale). Dr. Karras was a founding faculty member of the University of Washington’s the Biomedical &

Health Informatics program, and the UW Center for Public Health Informatics (cphi.washington.edu)
funded by CD C, NLM and RWJF. He is active in public health practice in Washington State and does consulting to help Local and
State Public Health Agencies with informatics issues throughout the greater Northwest and beyond. He still teaches and

mentors students, and CSTE/ASTHO Applied PHI Fellows. He was the PI of the CDC competencies PH Informaticians, as well as
developing curricula and many continuing education courses. He leads the DOH cross divisional efforts to prepare public health
for meaningful use and changes to public health practice that statewide Health Information Exchange will bring.

Ira Kaufman is Vice President, Research for The Strategic Vision Group. He specializes in health
informatics, public health, health care financing, health policy, workforce, long-term care and
medical/public health education. He has extensive experience creating and managing large state data
systems and conducting health policy analyses. He directed Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s
program to redesign 10 state health data organizations’ systems, improving use for decision-making.
Ira directed Kellogg Foundation’s web-based TA system for Turning Point public health grantees. Ira
was a member of the National Information Infrastructure Health Care Advisory Group, Council on
Competitiveness, IOM's Committee on Performance Measures and Data for Public Health, AHA’s

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 8
Participant Bios and Photos
Health Statistics Advisory Panel and Board member of the National Association of Health Data Organizations. As Wisconsin's
Chief of Health Data, he managed 49 researchers, creating data systems and conducting policy assessments, and evaluations
for its Medicaid and Public Health agencies. He monitored performance of the State’s public health strategies. Ira designed the
actuarial system that enabled Wisconsin Medicaid to implement HMOs and redesigned their DRG reimbursement system. He
led development of the first computerized nursing home system for quality assurance reporting under MDS.

Jeffrey Kriseman, MS, PhD, is the chief of the Information Systems and Statistical Support Branch (ISSSB) in
the Division of Notifiable Diseases and Healthcare Information at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC). As ISSB branch chief, Dr. Kriseman manages the information technology and informatics
activities for two of CDC’s key national public health surveillance systems, the National Notifiable Diseases
Surveillance Systems (NNDSS) and the BioSense Program. The ISSSB provides the informatics standards,
infrastructure, and support necessary to ensure public health disease and syndromic surveillance data
moves quickly and securely between health providers, hospitals, laboratories, local and state health
departments and CDC. ISSSB IT initiatives and programs include BioSense 2.0, National Electronic Diseases
Surveillance System (NEDSS), and the NEDSS Base System. These three initiatives provide the data necessary for timely and
accurate disease reports and a national public health surveillance picture. Before joining CDC in 2012, Dr. Kriseman served as a
senior public health scientist at the Southern Nevada Health District. He has over twenty years of diverse informatics and IT
experience working in areas such as translational genomics and the aerospace industry. Dr. Kriseman has a Bachelor’s degree
in Information Technology, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics, and he received his PhD in Biomedical Informatics
from the Arizona State University.

Jill Krueger is a senior attorney at The Network for Public Health Law. The Network provides legal
technical assistance to people committed to applying the law to improve public health. Jill assists state
and local health departments on a wide range of topics in public health law, including health care reform,
accreditation, cross-jurisdictional agreements, health information and data privacy, environmental health,
tobacco control, and obesity prevention. One of her current research projects is an analysis of opt-out and
opt-in models for immunization registries at the state, local, and territorial level. Before joining the
Network, Jill worked for over ten years at Farmers’ Legal Action Group and she writes frequently on the
connections between the Farm Bill and public health. Jill graduated from the University of Iowa College of

Law and Earlham College.

Marty LaVenture is director of the Office of Health Information Technology and e-Health at the Minnesota
Department of Health. Dr. LaVenture leads the statewide Minnesota e-Health Initiative a public – private
collaborative chartered in 2004 to advance HIT adoption and use in Minnesota. Dr. LaVenture has a
master’s degree in epidemiology and a PhD in Health Informatics from the University of Minnesota. Dr.
LaVenture is an adjunct core member of the faculty at the University of Minnesota in Health Informatics.
He is lead author for the revised chapter on public health informatics in upcoming 4th edition of the
Shortliffe & Cimino’s Textbook of Biomedical Informatics (BMI). He is an elected fellow of the American

college of medical informatics. Nationally, Dr. LaVenture serves on the editorial board for the Journal of
Biomedical Informatics. He is a member of the ASTHO e-health policy committee; Dr. LaVenture has authored or co-authored
articles and scientific publications, he has delivered presentations to state and national audiences and he has received multiple
awards for his work and accomplishments.

Dr. Leslie A. Lenert earned his MD from University of California, Los Angeles and his MS in Biomedical
Informatics from Stanford University. At Stanford, Dr. Lenert also completed a fellowship in Clinical
Pharmacology. He is both a professor of Internal Medicine and of Biomedical Informatics at the University
of Utah. At the University of Utah, in addition to being a primary care physician, Dr. Lenert is Associate
Chair for Ambulatory Care of the Department of Medicine. In this role he works to develop clinical
population health strategies and advanced-care delivery systems for the department.

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 9
Participant Bios and Photos
Kerri McGowan Lowrey, J.D., M.P.H., is Deputy Director of the Public Health Law Network—Eastern
Region based at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Kerri has more than 11 years
of experience in public health law and policy research, as well as primary and secondary legal and
legislative research and analysis. Her areas of research have included the role of law in cancer prevention;
injury prevention law, particularly sports and recreational injury prevention in children and adolescents;
social determinants of health; child welfare law; and legal and ethical implications of emerging
technologies. Kerri’s specialized training includes a four-year term as a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the
National Cancer Institute, where she assisted in developing the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Ethics Track.

Prior to joining the Public Health Law Network, Kerri served as Technical Vice President at the MayaTech
Corporation in Silver Spring, MD, and Manager of its Center for Health Policy and Legislative Analysis. Kerri
received her J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, an M.P.H. from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg
School of Public Health in, and A.B. in public policy and American institutions from Brown University in Providence, RI.

Glen P. Mays serves as the F. Douglas Scutchfield Endowed Professor of Health Services and Systems
Research at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health. Prior to joining the University of
Kentucky in August 2011, he served as professor and chairman of the Department of Health Policy and
Management in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences (UAMS), where he also directed the Ph.D. program in Health Systems Research at UAMS. Dr.
Mays’ research focuses on strategies for organizing and financing public health services, preventive care,
and chronic disease management for underserved populations. Currently, he directs the Public Health
Practice-Based Research Networks Program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which
brings together public health agencies and researchers from around the nation to study innovations in
public health practice. Mays also serves as co-PI of the RWJF-funded National Coordinating Center for

Public Health Services and Systems Research at the University of Kentucky. Mays also is co-PI of the
C DC-funded North Carolina Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center conducted in collaboration with UNC-
Chapel Hill. Mays earned an undergraduate degree in political science from Brown University, earned M.P.H. and Ph.D.
degrees in health policy and administration from UNC-Chapel Hill, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in health
economics at Harvard Medical School.

Karen Milman, MD, MPH, is the Prevention Division Director for Public Health—Seattle & King County, a
large metropolitan health department with 1400 employees and a budget of $318 million that serves a
population of 1.9 million people. Programs within the Prevention Division include: Chronic Disease and
Injury Prevention; Communicable Disease Control, Epidemiology and Immunization Services; HIV/AIDS and
STD Prevention and Control; Tuberculosis Prevention and Control; Medical Examiner’s Office; Vital
Statistics; and the Public Health Laboratory. Prior to assuming this role, Dr. Milman was the Director of
Public Health/Health Officer for Nevada County, California. One of her many activities there included
serving on the steering committee for the Greater Sierra Health Information Organization, to implement a
community-wide electronic medical record system with the goal of creating a health information exchange
for western Nevada County. Dr. Milman received her medical degree from the University of Maryland and
her Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is board certified in preventive
medicine.

Lisa Moon is a Registered Nurse, Legal Nurse Consultant and Informatician that has worked in both acute care and public
health settings, small and large hospitals and in the insurance industry. She has managed clinical and complex case
management teams, worked on population health strategies for clinical programs using evidence based guidelines, predictive
modeling and advanced data analytics for the purpose of adding value to each customers healthcare experience. Lisa has
essential quality and compliance knowledge, and most recently began her role in the Minnesota Department of Health-Office
of Health Information Technology as the Director of Privacy/Security and Health Information Exchange Program Oversight. She
lives in the twin cities with her family, enjoys spending time with her teenage children and husband; and was recently accepted
into the Nursing Informatics PhD program at the University of Minnesota.

Public Health and the Learning Health System Meeting, March 11-13, 2013 10