Digital Institute for Higher Education Academy - Monday

Holly Hunt, MA, is Chief of the Healthy Schools Branch in the Division of Population Health (DPH), at CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP). The School Health Branch leads chronic disease prevention activities specific to children and adolescents in schools with a focus on obesity prevention, nutrition and physical activity, and management of chronic conditions. With a long history of working across education and public health agencies, the School Health Branch provides rich partnerships and expertise for implementing public health practices in schools.Ms. Hunt leads innovative projects in research application, evaluation, and program and professional development. Prior to joining the Branch, Ms. Hunt served as the Deputy Director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), responsible for the overall management of Division operations and establishing effective working partnerships with key national, federal, and nonprofit organizations working to improve the health of youth. Ms. Hunt joined CDC in 1997 and has served as the Associate Director for Policy, Evaluation, and Legislation, Director of Science Education, and as a Project Officer to CDC-funded national, state and local school health projects. Before joining CDC, Ms. Hunt served for seven years as an HIV Prevention Education Consultant in the Kentucky Department of Education, responsible for the development and implementation of statewide HIV prevention and school health programs, professional development, and community partnerships to promote the health of school-aged youth.

Melissa Fahrenbruch, MEd is the Program and Professional Development Team Lead in the Division of Population Health’s School Health Branch, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Melissa earned a BS in Education from the University of Nebraska, and a master’s in educational leadership from Doane College. She has over 25 years of experience in the education field as a teacher, coach and as a high school principal. Her school health expertise led her to Kansas and was the Director of CDC’s Coordinated School Health Program in the early 2000s. She then moved to Atlanta to serve as a Project Officer of that program which led her to her current position as team lead. Melissa currently oversees two school health cooperative agreements for states and national organizations and is the lead for internal and external professional development events for CDC staff and funded partners.

Bridget Borgogna is a health education specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Population Health, where she serves as a Project Officer and manager for the Training Tools for Healthy Schools professional development trainings. She is a member of the Program and Professional Development team, and provides expertise and technical assistance for professional development internally and with external partners. Bridget was a health and physical education teacher and worked at the GA Department of Education as the state’s Safe and Drug Free Schools and HIV Prevention Coordinator. She also was an international Master Trainer for the Lions Quest Programs, as well as for her own Training and Consulting business. She earned her Bachelor of Education degree from SUNY Brockport, Brockport, NY and a Master of Education degree from the University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, and a Curriculum and Supervision certificate from the University of Georgia. Bridget has served on the ASHA Board of Directors for two years, and is currently the Future Leaders Academy facilitator.

Dr. Seraphine Pitt Barnes currently serves as a health scientist in the CDC’s Division of Population Health, Healthy Schools Branch. Seraphine designs and conducts cross-cutting school-based evaluation research. She also oversees the school health evaluation activities of the Healthy Schools Program (1801) and provides evaluation technical assistance to grantees and a variety of partners with the goal of improving nutrition, physical activity, and managing chronic health conditions in schools. Seraphine also serves as the lead for the School Health Index. Dr. Pitt Barnes earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in Public Health from the University of South Florida.

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).

David A. Birch retired as a professor from The University of Alabama in 2020. He served as professor and chair of the Department of Health Science at UA from 2011-2018. He is a Past-President of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and the American Association for Health Education (AAHE). Dr. Birch serves and has served on the Boards of Directors of numerous professional organizations, editorial boards, and in various other professional leadership roles. He has received the American School Health Association William A. Howe Award and the SOPHE Distinguished Fellow Award. He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, several books and book chapters.

Dr. Elisa Beth McNeill, a Clinical Professor of Pedagogy in the Department of Health and Kinesiology, servs as the Coordinator of the Health Education Teacher Certification Program. Beth has over 38 years of teaching experience working college aged health majors and middle high school experience with at-risk pregnant or parenting adolescents. McNeill teaches courses in human sexuality, elementary and secondary school health pedagogy, technology for teachers, and community & school health methodology. She is a co-author of the textbook, Health Education: Creating Strategies for School and Community Health.

Donna Videto, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and Professor of Health, has worked in school health education and pedagogy for over 40 years. An AAHE Fellow and a CDC HECAT trainer, she is currently employed by SUNY College at Cortland where Donna teaches graduate and undergraduate students in health education. Donna has a number of national publications including Birch & Videto’s 2015 Promoting Health and Academic Success: The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Approach. With over 150 national, regional and state level presentations at conferences and committee work for SOPHE, AAHE, and ASHA. Currently Donna serves as the Vice President of FAHE.

Dr. Kandice Porter is a Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the Department of Health Promotion and Physical Education at Kennesaw State University. For over twenty years, she has taught health education methods coursework in a HPETE P-12 program. Currently, she is working with the GADOE to train professionals to develop curricula aligned with the newly approved Georgia Standards of Excellence for health education.

For the past twenty-five (25) years, Dr. Donnelly has served as a faculty member at Montclair State University in the Dept. of Public Health. Over the years, Dr. Donnelly has published two textbooks (Health Counseling & Mental Health), published and presented numerous manuscripts throughout the years, and has established a specialization in School Health Education. Primarily, Dr. Donnelly instructs students who are future Health/Physical Education teachers. Finally, Dr. Donnelly served on the NJ Dept. of Education committee revising the most recent NJ Student Learning Standards, which will affect Health/Physical Education instruction for K-12 students throughout the next five years.

Elaine Auld, MPH, MCHES, has served as SOPHE’s Chief Executive Officer since 1995, where she oversees the organization’s portfolio in professional preparation, professional development, research, and advocacy/public policy.  Over her 30+ year career, Ms. Auld has published on more than 40 journal articles and book chapters on health education’s role in community/school health education competencies, health equity, national and international workforce development, and public policy.  For the last five years, she has been involved in quality assurance in school health education, promotion of the the WSCC model, and supported the National Task Force on the Future of School Health Education.  Ms. Auld holds her MPH from the University of Michigan School of Public Health with a concentration in health behavior and is a master certified health education specialist. 

Jordan Fuhrmeister, MPH, CHES is an Associate Project Director at the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE). She brings her background in federal and state grant administration and public health non-profit management to lead the CDC Healthy Schools and CDC Arthritis cooperative agreements. Additional portfolios she directs include SOPHE Awards, Professional Preparation, and the National Committee on the Future of School Health Education. She has overseen and contributed to various CDC funded field resources for school health educators, and co-authored literature in areas of opioid addiction, school health, and childhood obesity to inform health policy and practice.

Rachael Dombrowski, PhD, MPH, designs, implements and evaluates multilevel interventions to advance social justice and improve community health. Dr. Dombrowski is a faculty member of California State University San Marcos where she conducts community-based participatory research, including program development and evaluation within the Midwest and nation-wide. Dr. Dombrowski serves as an evaluator for the Best Food Forward school-based nutrition supports intervention, and recently conducted an assessment of over 300 grocery stores for the Great Grocer Project. Prior to working in academia, Dr. Dombrowski spent over 10 years directing and evaluating several multilevel interventions focused on policy, systems and environmental change within schools, communities, hospitals and corner stores in suburban Cook County and Chicago, Illinois. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago (PhD) and the University of Michigan (MPH). She has worked in the public health field for over 15 years.

James Mallare is an Associate Researcher at Wayne State University He has assisted in research initiatives that cover experiences across the life span from childhood and adolescent nutrition to cognition and physical activity in the older adult population. His areas of interest are in nutrition and chronic disease in low socio-economic populations and the professional preparation of community and school health educators at institutions for higher education. A native Canadian, he is constantly looking for connections and opportunities to collaborate internationally on matters of education and betterment of health systems.

Tiffany Edgar is a Lecturer in the Sport Administration and Management Program at Wayne State University in the College of Education’s Kinesiology, Health and Sports Studies Division. With 10+ years of college teaching experience, Tiffany’s primary responsibilities include teaching courses online, asynchronously, for both graduate and undergraduate courses. She has completed several Quality Matter’s courses focusing on online course design and learner centered approaches to online learning, including earning the Quality Matter’s Teaching Online Certificate for Higher Education as well as the Accelerated K-12 Reviewer Course for Higher Education. Tiffany also has experience working in K-12 physical education, coaching college, high school, and competitive youth fast-pitch softball, and college athletic administration in the roles of Senior Women’s Administrator and Athletic Academic Advisor.