Cheryl Merzel DrPH, MPH

Clinical Associate Professor

NYU School of Global Public Health

Dr. Cheryl Merzel has over 25 years of experience in public health research, evaluation, program development, advocacy, and education. Her work focuses on design and evaluation of community-based health promotion interventions and development of community capacity to engage in public health efforts. Her work also involves developing approaches to support communities in translating research to relevant, evidence-based public health practice. She has decades of involvement with Health Start, a federally-funded community-based program for improving the health of pregnant and parenting women and their infants. 

Dr. Merzel co-directs the School of Global Public Health’s Community Health Initiative with Dr. Andy Goodman. As the Director of Educational Advancement and Assessment for the College, Dr. Merzel is committed to improving public health pedagogy through scholarship and innovative teaching practice. She has served on the public health faculty at a number of institutions including Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the City University of New York, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a past president of the Public Health Association of New York City.

Jesus Ramirez-Valles, PhD, MPH

Professor & Director

Health Equity Institute, San Francisco State University

Jesus Ramirez-Valles is a public health leader, scholar, and filmmaker. He started his career as a community organizer on the US-Mexico border and over the last two decades has devoted his research to health equity here and abroad. His work is rooted on the social and behavioral sciences and in comumnity-engaged research, and is concerned with understanding and changing the negative health consequences of social exclusion such as stigmatization and racism. He has led academic programs in public health and worked on recruitment and retention of scholars of color. Professor Ramirez-Valles is the Editor-in-Chief of Health Education & Behavior.

Jeanine Robitaille, MS, CHES

Editorial & Project Manager

Society for Public Health Education

Jeanine is the managing editor of Health Promotion Practice, SOPHE’s practice based journal, as well as the founding editorial manager for SOPHE’s youngest journal, Pedagogy in Health Promotion. Since 2014, Jeanine has had the opportunity to collaborate with four EIC’s, as well as guest editors and editorial boards to deliver best practices and innovative approaches in over 70 issues for these health education publications that continue to grow in submissions, visibility, and contributions to the field. Jeanine enjoys gaining a broad perspective of public health initiatives by supporting editorial leadership, authors, and reviewers that help enhance her competencies as a Certified Health Education Specialist. In addition to her work with the journals, Jeanine has worked as a technical assistance coordinator for Partnering 4 Health and supports grant writing teams. 

Prior to earning her Masters in Health Promotion Management from the American University in 2013, Jeanine taught middle school English for students with language based learning differences and worked as a writing tutor at the US Coast Guard Academy. Jeanine shares her dedication to healthy living with her four children and maintains sanity with running, reading, and lots of coffee!

Kathleen Roe DrPh, MPH

Professor

San José State University

Dr. Roe has been a professor of public health and community health education at San Jose State University for over 29 years, where she served as chair for the Health Science and Recreation Department from 2001-2013. She brings more than two decades of scholarship and editorial experience, including as founding associate editor for HPP’s “Circle of Research and Practice” Department; co-editor of HPP’s first supplement devoted to health disparities in 2002; and editorial board member of SOPHE’s Pedagogy in Health Promotion Journal.

Dianne Kerr, PhD, MS, MCHES®

Dr. Dianne Kerr is a recently retired Professor Emeritus of Health Education and Promotion at Kent State University. Her research expertise is HIV/AIDS, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) health, and health education and advocacy issues. Dr. Kerr serves as the Vice Chair of the Division Board of Certified Health Education Specialists (DBCHES) and on the Board of Commissioners for NCHEC. She was awarded the Society for Public Health Education’s Dorothy B. Nyswander Open Society Award in 2016. As an educator and activist for over 40 years, Dr. Kerr continues to support equity and social justice causes in her community, state, region and country.

Kathleen Allison, PhD, MPH, MCHES®

Dr. Kathleen Allison is Professor of Community & Public Health Education in the Department of Health Science at Lock Haven University. She serves as the Coordinator of the Division Board of Certified Health Education Specialists (DBCHES) and on the NCHEC’s Board of Commissioners. She served on the Technical Advisory Group for the Health Education Specialist Practice Analysis (HESPA) 2020. Dr. Allison is very interested in professional preparation and development, health literacy, and social justice. 

Katie M. Houk, MLIS, MPH

Kathryn Houk is Health Literacy & Community Engagement Librarian and assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s Health Sciences Library. She received her MLIS from Kent State University in 2009 and recently completed her MPH from San Jose State University in community health education. Katie has a keen interest in health communication, particularly in improving science and health literacy in the public and improving expert’s communication skills. She is also interested in community and university collaborations in the Las Vegas valley, including securing and running a recent grant that provides continuing education on consumer health information for the local community health workforce.

Melissa Wilkins

Melissa Wilkins is a Project Manager for the County of Santa Barbara, Department of Behavioral Wellness. With over 15 years of experience in the field, Melissa has managed a number of programs to address health disparities including substance use prevention and treatment programs. She is currently pursuing her MPH from San Jose State University and is passionate about addressing population level health through advocacy, collaboration, and relationship building. She currently facilitates county-wide trainings to promote the implementation of evidence-based practices and successfully managed the transition from in-person trainings to web-based platforms in response to COVID-19. 

Kate Lorig

DrPH

Self Management Resource Center, Professor Emerita at Stanford School of Medicine

Kate served as the Director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center and Professor of Medicine in the Stanford School of Medicine. She earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing at Boston University, and her masters and doctorate of public health in health education at the University of California, Berkeley. She came to Stanford in 1979 while a graduate student at Cal to develop and research an educational program that emphasized self-help skills for people with arthritis. This program became the Arthritis Self-Help Course and was the prototype for the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, The Diabetes Self-Management Program, the Positive Self-Management Program for HIV, the Cancer: Thriving and Surviving Program, the Building Better Caregiver's Program, the Chronic Pain Self-Management Program, and others. She has authored several books and many articles about arthritis, chronic disease in general, health education and behavioral science. She travels extensively at the invitation of organizations concerned with patient care and academic research. She lives in Mountain View, CA, with her 2 cats and a collection of Native American art.

Paul Hepfer

MS

Chief Executive Officer at Project Open Hand

In his role as CEO, Paul has been instrumental in continuing to leverage and expand Project Open Hand's relationships with government partners, health plans and providers, private funders, donors and volunteers. As an advocate for medically tailored nutrition interventions, he furthers the mission of educating healthcare payers and providers on the role of medical nutrition in health outcomes.  

His twenty-five-year professional career has been exclusively grounded in community health and wellness for diverse populations. He previously served as senior vice president of programs for The Health Trust in San Jose and Santa Clara County for 14 years. In that role, he provided vision and leadership for The Health Trust's entire portfolio of services, including HIV/AIDS programming, Meals on Wheels, the Jerry Larson Food Basket, community-based chronic disease prevention and management services, and a wide range of supportive housing programs. Prior to joining The Health Trust, he served as executive director of wellness and education for the Pueblo of Sandia Native American Reservation in New Mexico for eight years. Paul holds a B.S. in Physical Education from Indiana State University and an M.S. in Park and Recreation Administration with a specialization in Outdoor Therapeutic Recreation from Indiana University. 

His past experience with coalitions and collaboratives includes six years on the Santa Clara County HIV/AIDS Planning Council, the City of Mountain View Parks and Recreation and Urban Forestry Commission, and the Santa Clara County Diabetes Prevention Task Force. Paul currently service as Board Chair for the Evidence Based Leadership Collaborative (EBLC), Leadership Committee member of the National Food is Medicine Coalition, and Leadership team of the California Food is Medicine Coalition. 

Teresa Ambroz

MPH, RDN, LN

Teresa is the Manager of the Diabetes and Health Behavior Unit in the Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Division of the Minnesota Department of Health. In this role, she guides efforts to prevent and manage chronic conditions to improve the lives of all Minnesotans and reduce health disparities. Ms. Ambroz has over three decades of experience assessing community needs, researching, developing, implementing, and evaluating evidence-informed and sustainable health improvement and prevention initiatives with community stakeholders in multiple settings. She has worked in multiple sectors including managed care, care delivery, local public health, nonprofit and state government. As a passionate optimist with a vision, Teresa believes that together, we can build a culture of health, improve the quality of people’s lives’, and reduce the economic burden of escalating health care costs.  Her strength lies in bringing people, ideas, and evidence-based approaches together to create innovative solutions that endure the test of time. Teresa has a master’s degree in Public Health Nutrition from the University of Minnesota.

Chavone Crespo

MS, LMHC, LPC

Chavone L. Crespo, MS, LMHC, LPC - chavonecrespo@gmail.com, Master of Science, Mental Health Counseling - Touro University Graduate School of Psychology Chavone Lorraine Crespo, MS, LMHC, LPC

Chavone Crespo holds a Master’s degree in mental health counseling and has advanced training in psychoanalysis. While psychoanalysis is the theoretical base that guides her through the process of understanding clients and their problems and developing solutions; Chavone is eclectic in her approach and also uses cognitive and behavioral methods as well as person-centered and solution-focused approaches. She has worked for many years and continues to support mental health, healing, and recovery to survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence through advocacy and psychotherapy.
Ms. Crespo works with people who are having difficulties working through issues of intergenerational trauma, racial identification and assimilation. She works with the with members of the LGBTQIA+ community, individuals suffering with addictions, mood, and personality disorders among other challenges.
Chavone Crespo is licensed in New York State (mental health counselor) and Colorado (professional counselor)

Kelsey Cowles, MLIS

MLIS

Kelsey Cowles, MLIS is the Academic Coordinator for the Middle Atlantic Region of the Network of the National Library of Medicine, based at the University of Pittsburgh’s Health Sciences Library System. The NNLM serves as an outreach and engagement arm for the National Library of Medicine, which is known for providing high quality health information to health practitioners, researchers, students, instructors, and the general public.

Heather Flattery (Moderator)

MPH, CHES®

Heather holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health with a concentration in health management and policy from Eastern Virginia Medical School. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Rutgers University where she served as a sexual health educator before joining AmeriCorps as an advocate for survivors of sexual assault.  As a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES®), she is accredited and supported to uphold standards of learning and competencies of health educators.  She is very passionate about empowering and educating women and girls with the Days for Girls International organization and through a recent humanitarian trip to Guatemala to build stoves for families in rural communities. 

For over two and a half years, Heather’s role, as Manager of Membership and Marketing with the Society for Public Health Education, has been to oversee membership products and programs

Lori Dewald, PhD, MCHES®

Dr. Lori Dewald has her doctorate from the University of Tennessee in health education, her masters in school and public health is also from the University of Tennessee, and she has two bachelors degrees (Mankato State University in teacher education, and Athletic Training from South Dakota State University). Lori was the first person in the country to achieve both the credentials of Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC) and Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) in combination with a doctorate, an accomplishment that was rarely matched by others. In 2011, when the new advanced health education credential became available, she became a master certified health education specialist (MCHES) and was the first person in the country with both the ATC and MCHES credentials. 

Lori has given over 170 invited national conference presentations and has had over 45 peer reviewed research publications. Lori is on the peer review boards for 10 different professional journals and is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Health Education Teaching (Journal of Health Education Teaching Established 2010 - Home) and the Journal for Interprofessional Postgraduate Research (My Business - JIPR HomeThe Aim and Scope)

Lori is involved in many national committees in the American College Health Association (ACHA), the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), and the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE).

Lori was inducted as a fellow in the American Association for Health Education in 2009. In 2011 she received the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer award from the NATA. And the American College Health Association honored her and 4 other women with the 2019 Best Practices in Administration award for the first of its kind national survey they developed to assess faculty and staff health and wellness behaviors.

Kathleen Allison

PhD, MPH, MCHES

Kathleen is a professor of Community & Public Health Education at Lock Haven University. During her tenure, she has been responsible for teaching courses in the school health and public health education tracks in the university’s Department of Health Science. She has also authored the credentialing documents for the school health and public health education programs. She has served on NCHEC’s Division Board for Certified Health Education Specialists since 2015 and served as the Chair for NCHEC’s Board of Commissioners in 2019. Kathleen was a member of the Technical Advisory Group for the HESPSA II 2020 and has conducted multiple presentations on the impact of HESPA II 2020 on credentialing and its interpretation across settings.   She recently authored the Planning, Implementing and Evaluating Culturally Appropriate Programs chapter, in the 3rd edition of Cultural Competence in Health Education and Health Promotion text edited by Miguel Perez and Raffy Luquis. Kathleen has been a health education specialist since 1991 and  worked in community, clinic and government settings in that role. Prior to earning her MPH from the University of South Carolina in Health Promotion Education and Behavior and PhD from Texas Woman’s University in Health Studies, Kathleen earned her bachelor’s degree in biology education from Indiana University of PA and taught at the high school level. 

Susan Goekler

PhD, RMCHES

As CEO of two professional associations, the Directors of Health Promotion and Education (DHPE) and the American School Health Association (ASHA), Susan Goekler (aka Susan Wooley) oversaw operations and represented the association, its members and the field. She has co-authored/co-edited several school health-relevant publications that include book chapters, encyclopedia articles, peer reviewed journal articles, and books, including Health Is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs.  She has worked in academia, schools, hospitals, non-profit agencies, associations, and government.  She is currently living in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and enjoying retirement from full time work while taking on projects of interest. One such project was co-chairing the Health Education Teacher Preparation Standards Writing Group for SOPHE and now serving as a part time consultant. She has served as a folio reviewer for NCATE and then CAEP since 1989, has chaired the AAHE NCATE Committee, trained other reviewers, and co-authored the 2008 iteration of the Health Education Teacher Preparation Standards.  She received her bachelor’s degree with honors in biology from Case Western Reserve University, a master’s degree in health education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a Ph.D. in health education from Temple University.  She is a Retired Master Certified Health Education Specialist (RMCHES).