Kim is a native of the Tidewater, Virginia area and moved to the New River Valley in Southwest VA in 2019. She holds an MS.Ed. in Health Promotion from Virginia Tech and a PhD in Education from Old Dominion University. She has over 20 years experience in higher education and has worked in various capacities in the public health field. Kim is currently working as research faculty in the Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute @ VTC in Roanoke, VA. Within the public health field, her experience and expertise lie primarily in the promotion of health and wellness and health equity, particularly through the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health interventions. Kim is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and also holds an Exercise Physiologist certification through ACSM. Kim is a member of several professional organizations and currently serves as President-Elect on the Virginia Public Health Association board and as chief-editor of the Virginia Journal of Public Health. She is also an active member of SOPHE and APHA. Kim also serves in the community as a Near Southwest Medical Reserve Corp volunteer and as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for the New River Valley. Kim enjoys hiking, biking, traveling, spending time with family and friends, and going to Virginia Tech sporting events.

Kim is a native of the Tidewater, Virginia area and moved to the New River Valley in Southwest VA in 2019. She holds an MS.Ed. in Health Promotion from Virginia Tech and a PhD in Education from Old Dominion University. She has over 20 years experience in higher education and has worked in various capacities in the public health field. Kim is currently working as research faculty in the Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute @ VTC in Roanoke, VA. Within the public health field, her experience and expertise lie primarily in the promotion of health and wellness and health equity, particularly through the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health interventions. Kim is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and also holds an Exercise Physiologist certification through ACSM. Kim is a member of several professional organizations and currently serves as President-Elect on the Virginia Public Health Association board and as chief-editor of the Virginia Journal of Public Health. She is also an active member of SOPHE and APHA. Kim also serves in the community as a Near Southwest Medical Reserve Corp volunteer and as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for the New River Valley. Kim enjoys hiking, biking, traveling, spending time with family and friends, and going to Virginia Tech sporting events.

Kim is a native of the Tidewater, Virginia area and moved to the New River Valley in Southwest VA in 2019. She holds an MS.Ed. in Health Promotion from Virginia Tech and a PhD in Education from Old Dominion University. She has over 20 years experience in higher education and has worked in various capacities in the public health field. Kim is currently working as research faculty in the Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute @ VTC in Roanoke, VA. Within the public health field, her experience and expertise lie primarily in the promotion of health and wellness and health equity, particularly through the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health interventions. Kim is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and also holds an Exercise Physiologist certification through ACSM. Kim is a member of several professional organizations and currently serves as President-Elect on the Virginia Public Health Association board and as chief-editor of the Virginia Journal of Public Health. She is also an active member of SOPHE and APHA. Kim also serves in the community as a Near Southwest Medical Reserve Corp volunteer and as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for the New River Valley. Kim enjoys hiking, biking, traveling, spending time with family and friends, and going to Virginia Tech sporting events.

Kim is a native of the Tidewater, Virginia area and moved to the New River Valley in Southwest VA in 2019. She holds an MS.Ed. in Health Promotion from Virginia Tech and a PhD in Education from Old Dominion University. She has over 20 years experience in higher education and has worked in various capacities in the public health field. Kim is currently working as research faculty in the Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute @ VTC in Roanoke, VA. Within the public health field, her experience and expertise lie primarily in the promotion of health and wellness and health equity, particularly through the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health interventions. Kim is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and also holds an Exercise Physiologist certification through ACSM. Kim is a member of several professional organizations and currently serves as President-Elect on the Virginia Public Health Association board and as chief-editor of the Virginia Journal of Public Health. She is also an active member of SOPHE and APHA. Kim also serves in the community as a Near Southwest Medical Reserve Corp volunteer and as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for the New River Valley. Kim enjoys hiking, biking, traveling, spending time with family and friends, and going to Virginia Tech sporting events.

Heidi Hancher-Rauch, PhD, MCHES®, is a professor of health sciences at Butler University with over 20 years of experience in academia and nearly 25 years in the public health field. Her professional background includes work in community disease prevention and worksite health, with expertise in health policy and advocacy, program evaluation, and evidence-based health promotion. A dedicated health advocate, the majority of her publications and presentations focus on this area. Dr. Hancher-Rauch currently serves as President of the SOPHE Board of Trustees. She has held multiple leadership roles, including Board Trustee for Advocacy & Resolutions, a long-time member of the Advocacy Committee, and delegate to the Coalition of National Health Education Organizations. She has also previously directed advocacy efforts for Indiana SOPHE and serves on the steering committee for the Top 10 Coalition in Indianapolis.

Chelsea Dade is a health communications professional who also is the founder of Communicate for Health Justice organization. She wears many hats in the wide field of health equity and builds awareness and resources on communicating health with equity and social justice in mind. 

For more information, check out Chelsea's online portfolio: https://chelseadade.wordpress....

Gigi Holder currently serves as the program director for the Child Access to Mental Health and Psychiatry (CHAMP) program operated out of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson. In this role, Gigi operates the day-to-day activities which vastly involve providing resources and referrals, and education to primary care providers across the state when they call the consultation phone line to speak to a mental health specialist regarding the care of their pediatric patients. The mission of CHAMP is to address the lack of mental health resources across Mississippi by allowing for same-day, peer to peer consultation between a medical provider and a social worker, child psychologist, or child psychiatrist so that behavioral and emotional concerns can be addressed without the need for unnecessary referral delay for services.

Prior to this position, Gigi completed a 2-year postgraduate fellowship with the Mississippi Thrive! Child Health and Development Project which was a comprised of a multidisciplinary team conducting developmental assessments for children up to age 6 at the Center for Advancement of Youth (CAY) at UMMC. As a clinician, she continues to provide therapy services to families with children aged 2 to 7 regarding behavioral concerns as well as exposure to trauma events for young children and adolescents. 

Gigi earned her bachelor’s degree in Health Education from the University of Arkansas in her hometown of Fayetteville, AR, and later received a Master's of Public Health and a Master's of Social Work from the Dual Degree Program in New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Through all of this, her involvement with SOPHE has remained steadfast from maintaining her CHES credentialing to serving in leadership roles in both the House of Delegates and on the Board of Trustees for National SOPHE. 

Dr. Gayle Walter earned her PhD in Public Health and her Master of Public Health from Walden University. Her undergraduate degree is in health services administration. She is the program director for the undergraduate public health program at Allen College. She has been teaching in higher education for several years both in online instruction and face-to-face instruction.  Her areas of interest include the social determinants of health, health care services for diverse populations, and health disparities.

In her commitment to the profession, she has served on several committees for the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and the Iowa Public Health Association (IPHA). She also believes in serving her community and is currently volunteering with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) in Linn County, Iowa, the Quality Committee for Crescent Community Health Center, and a member of the Iowa Cancer Consortium.