2012 ISC Steering Committee Election Information
The ISC Nominating Committee has met and reviewed the candidate’s nomination forms submitted for the ISC Steering Committee. Below you will find the 2012 ISC Steering Committee ballot. An email with the link to vote has been sent to ISC members. Although this message has been sent to the entire ISC, it is the responsibility of the 2012 Chair to submit the Section's vote after there is agreement among the 2012 Chair-Elect, 2012 Chair, and the 2012 Immediate Past-Chair. Please review and rank order the candidates (#1 is the section's first choice and #4 is the section's last choice for the Steering Committee position).
The two top candidates will be the winners. As you are selecting your two candidates, please remember that you are choosing leaders that will guide the future of the ISC and each Section. The members elected this year to the Steering Committee :
Will be liaisons to 4-5 Sections/SPIGs (including their own) and responsible for reporting concerns/suggestions to the ISC Steering Council on monthly conference calls
One of the two will be elected as the ISC Chair-Elect for 2014.
That individual will be ISC Chair in 2015 and sit as an ex-officio member on the APHA Executive Board.
Again, the link to the ballot has been emailed separately. Once your section has decided on the ranking of the candidates -please have your current Chair complete the ballot no later than 6pm, Friday, September 28, 2012.
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Candidate Statements (listed alphabetically)
Name: Malcolm Bryant, 2012 IH Chair
Years of Leadership in APHA and State Affiliate (if applicable): 8 Years
Section: International Health
Position(s) held in APHA and State Affiliate (if applicable):
• Section Chair & Chair-elect
• Governing Counselor (two terms)
• Program Committee Chair
Candidate Statement
I have been an international health professional for over 30 years, and an APHA member for 25 of those. Originally trained as a physician, I became focused on public health as a district medical officer in rural Africa, and later heading a public health department in North America. I have spent much of my professional career improving management systems to increase access to, and quality of health services in low resource settings around the world, and am driven by the desire to reduce inequity in health care. Much of my current work is directed at how to improve the ability of non-governmental and community-based organizations to deliver services to the most needy and vulnerable children in a community.
I am an excellent manager, having run multi-million dollar development projects, a public health department, and consulting teams of varying sizes. A good team builder, I’ve often been called on to lead field teams, but am also drawn in to resolve conflict and troubleshoot problems. I also love to teach, which is where my career is taking me at this point with my appointment at Boston University.
As an ISC steering committee member, I want to build on the excellent collaborative relationships that the IH section has developed in the last few years with other sections for both advocacy and policy purposes. I would also like to reach out to the state affiliates to help demonstrate the value that lessons from international health can have in state and local public health.
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Name: Debra Jackson, 2012 MCH Chair
Section: Maternal & Child Health
Years of Leadership in APHA and State Affiliate (if applicable): 22 years
Position(s) held in APHA and State Affiliate (if applicable):
APHA Nominations Committee (2002-2004; 2008-10, Chair 2010);
Maternal & Child Health Section
- Chair (2011-2012);
- Chair-Elect (2009-10)
- Governing Council (1999-2001, 2003-08),
- Web Site Editor (1998-2000),
- Secretary (1997-98),
- Secretary-Elect (1995-96),
- Student Task Force Chair (1996),
- Program Chair (1995),
- Co-Chair Innovations in Maternity Care Committee (1991-99),
- Co-Chair International MCH Committee (1990)
Intersectional Council (2009-2012)APHA International Human Rights Committee (2001-2)
Candidate Statement
What would you like to accomplish as an ISC Steering Committee member?
I would have 2 priorities on the ISC steering committee.
The first is inter-section and inter-component collaboration and integration. In the MCH leadership we have had many examples of successful inter-section collaboration including and beyond co-sponsorship of sessions at the annual meeting. We have co-lead the development of several forums (breastfeeding, family violence and genetics). MCH is a core public health discipline and we have much in common with every section across APHA. In my role on the APHA Nominations Committee and Governing Council I have had opportunities for successful collaboration. In addition, our section has reached out to the COA through trying to identify state MCH representatives, including them in our Section Town Halls and through enlisting their support in the Text4Baby initiative to which APHA is a key partner.
My second priority would be membership. This is a core issue for APHA and must be at the forefront of all we do.
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Name: Walter Jones, 2012 OHS Chair
Section: Occupational Health & Safety
Years of Leadership in APHA and State Affiliate (if applicable): 7 years
Position(s) held in APHA and State Affiliate (if applicable):
- Section Councilor 1998-2000
- Governing Councilor 2004-5
- Section Chair-Elect 2011
- Section Chair 2012
Candidate Statement
Mr. Jones has been a member of APHA since 1993 and has served in the OHS section’s leadership holding many positions. Mr. Jones was a Section Councilor from 1998 - 2000, Program Planner in 2001, and Governing Councilor in 2004-2005 and has been the Chair of the Section for the last year. He has also been the Chair of section’s Industrial Hygiene subcommittee.
Mr. Jones has been working with the ISC since becoming the OHS section’s chair-elect and attended the first mid-year meeting where he worked with other sections during the Open Space activity to come up with recommendations on increased transparency. One recommendation on online access to section budget was implemented shortly after the meeting. Walter also sat on a panel at the 2011 ISC/COA meeting during the fall conference in Washington, where he relayed his experience from the midyear meeting. The Midyear meeting focused exclusively on the ACA and Walter talked about important ancillary public health messages from the conference that were useful for professionals not on the healthcare frontline. This year, he contacted the Environment and Epidemiology sections and organized the APHA special session on Fracking. In effort to reach beyond his section, he reached out to the HIIT section and organized a digital technology contest. It is a competition with a tacit hope that the winning video will be attractive enough to go viral.
These are the types of efforts he would like to bring to the ISC. Walter believes that the future of APHA depends on being able to increase “public” support of the organization and that can be best accomplished through intersectional collaborations that emphasizes the strengths of each section in representing and protecting the public’s health.
Mr. Jones is a Certified Industrial Hygienist with a Master’s Degree in Environmental and Occupational Health Science. He has 17 years of labor union experience in occupational worker safety and health. His current employer is the Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America.
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Name: Jason Smith, 2012 Law Chair-elect
Section: Law Section
Years of Leadership in APHA and State Affiliate (if applicable): 4 years
Position(s) held in APHA and State Affiliate (if applicable):
- Governing Councilor (At-Large)
- Section Chair-Elect
- Section Councilor
- Action Board Member
Candidate Statement
What would you like to accomplish as an ISC Steering Committee member?
Improve collaboration among the sections and components of APHA and the Law Section. Improve collaboration and interprofessional collaboration opportunities in APHA through joint endeavors in programming and other activities. Participate in efforts to work together to educate, train, and prepare the public health workforce for the coming transitions in the public health sector with the implementation of the ACA.
I recently left my position as Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut Health Center to move to San Francisco and focus on writing and consulting projects in public health law.
My recent work has focused on the law as an institution and on legal systems and their relationship to health. I am interested in disparities based on race and ethnicity and have primarily focused on health issues in the East Asian community. My research has focused on policymaking institutions and law as a structural determinant of health. I have worked extensively on issues related to food—from obesity and other diseases to safety and environmental concerns related to food production. I have also worked on issues related to disparities in the Asian community: Hepatitis B prevention and vaccination, mental health issues, and the early detection of cervical cancer.
I also work extensively on curriculum design and approaches to teaching law in interprofessional settings—particularly medical schools and public health programs. I have designed several courses using backward design techniques for curriculum development.
I also have extensive experience in consulting and research evaluating public health law programs and efforts and in the use of various legal techniques and qualitative analysis tools to evaluate programs and recommend legal solutions. I am interested in technical training and improving the legal understanding and capacity of public health practitioners.
What are the nominee’s area(s) of expertise?
Public Health and Technology
Legal Theory and Public Health Law and Ethics
Health Disparities (focus on East Asian Communities)
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act