Title: New Councilors Join CHPPD Section
Author:
Section/SPIG: Community Health Planning and Policy Development
Issue Date:
Patricia Peretz, MPH
Governing Councilor
Peretz, who serves as a program manager at Columbia University Medical Center, has served in multiple leadership roles in APHA including co-founder and co-chair of the CHPPD Student Committee. In her position, Peretz guides a hospital-community partnership aimed at reducing the burden of asthma on local families through culturally relevant programs and services. Peretz is also active in the Harlem Asthma Network, the New York City Asthma Partnership, and the Public Health Association of New York.
Ngina Lythcott, DrPH, MSW, RN, BA
Governing Councilor
Dr. Lythcott serves as the Associate Dean for Students at the Boston University School of Public Health and has been involved in improving the public's health for more than 35 years. Dr. Lythcott believes that public health efforts must include the engagement of the local community in meaningful participation, from the initial planning process through evaluation, in order to be effective.
Shawn Kimmel, PhD, MA
Governing Councilor
Dr. Kimmel, who serves as policy director of Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, has spent his education and career focused on the development of community capacity for engaging in policy advocacy. Dr. Kimmel also holds a leadership position in the Community-Based Public Health Caucus. Through his experience and training, Dr. Kimmel hopes to help the Section emphasize the importance of approaching public health policy work from the perspective of community-based organizations, with attention to their research and policy skills, capacities and needs.
Yasamin Brown, MPH
Governing Councilor
Brown serves as the director of School-Based Health Centers at the Jewish Renaissance Medical Center in New Jersey. Throughout her education and career, Brown has worked on programs as diverse as pediatric asthma management, educational lectures for young men who have sex with men, and travel-related illness prevention among Newark's immigrant community. Brown's interest in maternal and child health led her to volunteer as the chairperson for the Fundraising Committee of Newark’s 2005 Infant Immunization Week.
Mary E. Riner, DNS, RN
Section Councilor
Dr. Riner serves as Associate Professor of Nursing at Indiana University in Indianapolis and has been an active member of APHA throughout her career. Dr. Riner believes that community health planning occurs through effective partnerships that include diverse perspectives. Having served as president, treasurer, and member-at-large of the Indiana Public Health Association and Treasurer of the Kansas State Nurses Association, Dr. Riner will actively support the section’s important work on influencing knowledge and action in reducing health inequality and promoting health as a civil right.
Ashley Wennerstrom, MPH
Section Councilor
Wennerstrom serves as program manager at the Tulane University Schoolf of Medicine after having served as Chairperson of the CHPPD Student Committee. At Tulane, Wennerstrom manages the REACH NOLA Mental Health Infrastructure and Training Project, a community-academic collaboration that seeks to address depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in New Orleans communities by offering expert-led training programs and follow up activities to improve mental health access, quality of care, and outreach.
Joseph Schuchter, MPH
Governing Councilor
Schucter is an epidemiologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital's Child Policy Research Center and has served as a student representative to the CHPPD Policy and Resolutions Committee since 2007. In his own community of Cincinnati, Schuchter serves on two city-wide committees, the Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committe as well as a local Housing and Zoning Committee. Schuchter hopes to help CHPPD identify cross-cutting themes which most impact community health, for example issues related to equity and the built environment, all the while ensuring the Section's work remains informed and concerted.
Karen Valenzuela, MPA, MA
Governing Councilor
Valenzuela serves as the Local Health Liaison to the Washington Department of Health's Office of Drinking Water and has served four years on APHA's Executive Board. Prior to serving on the Executive Board, Valenzuela chaired APHA’s Nominating Committee, the Committee on Affiliates, and represented the Washington State Public Health Association on the Governing Council for six years, as well as serving on a number of APHA committees and working groups. Valenzuela's experience provides her with a good understanding of how to get things done in APHA, what challenges face our organization, and the role of the Governing Council in APHA’s structure, decisions and actions.