Writing Workshop Session 1

Mrs. Hackett is the Project Director for the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Program federal cooperative agreement, a nationwide community-based program to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities in cooperation with the CDC Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (DNPAO). She has over 40 years of experience of public experience with 27 years in Chronic Disease and Health Promotion program development and implementation including nutrition, cardiovascular disease prevention, gerontology, injury prevention, women’s health, HIV/AIDS awareness, health education, physical activity and program integration. Ten (10) years in maternal and child health. Work has included over 30 years’ experience working in State and local health departments and  10 years’ experience working in non-profit sector three of which was as an Executive Director. Her experience is extensive in the areas of Policy, Environment, and Systems (PES) Change; providing technical assistance and capacity building; planning, organizing and directing programs; development, implementation and monitoring of federal categorical grants and community-based grants; and, fiscal management including budget preparations, and resource allocation. 

Mrs. Hackett has a Master of Science Degree (SM) in Public Health Nutrition from the Harvard School of Public Health (Boston, MA) and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pre-Medicine from Bennett College (Greensboro, NC). She is a Certified Public Manager (CPM) (Rutgers, The State University in New Brunswick, NJ), and a Certified Master Trainer in Chronic Disease Self-Management (As instructed by Stanford University Patient Education Research Center. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Ministry Degree from Payne Theological Seminary. 

René Lavinghouze has over 32 years in designing, conducting, and managing evaluations focusing on prevention programs and is currently the Translation Team Lead in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at CDC.  Her focus is on the study of program infrastructure as the foundation that supports program capacity, implementation, and sustainability.  She is lead author of the Component Model of Infrastructure (CMI), a practical, systems-approach model that supports program implementation and enables outcome measurement, links infrastructure to capacity, and facilitates the likelihood of sustainable public health achievements.  She was the evaluation lead in the Office on Smoking and Health at CDC for 6 years and has worked in the Division of Oral Health and in HIV/AIDS prevention at CDC.  Prior to coming to CDC, she worked at a private evaluation and organizational service firm for over 7 years and has worked in academic and local health department settings.  She received her Master’s in Community Psychology from Georgia State University and a Master’s in Interactive Technology from The University of Alabama.

Founding editor Health Promotion Practice and President, Public Health Systems Consultants 

Randy is a nationally recognized public health professional with over thirty-five years’ experience in implementing health promotion/disease prevention initiatives in state health departments and voluntary health organizations with an emphasis on chronic disease prevention and control, cancer control, tobacco control, community-based health promotion, and healthy public policy. He is currently President of Public Health Systems Consultants and serves as the Sr. Public Health Consultant for Cancer Control with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD). He is an Adjunct Faculty member for several leading academic public health programs. Randy has written and presented on the importance of engaging public health practitioners along with researchers and engaged communities as a key factor in advancing implementation science. 

He has authored or co-authored numerous articles on health promotion and chronic disease prevention. Randy is the Founding Editor of the journal, Health Promotion Practice, a journal of the Society for Public Health Education. He has been awarded the Society for Public Health Education’s Distinguished Fellow Award, the Society’s highest honor. 

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.

Dr. Terry O’Toole serves as Chief of the Program Development and Evaluation Branch, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Dr. O’Toole provides leadership and subject matter expertise to state and community-based programs, national partners, and health organizations focused on chronic disease prevention, obesity, nutrition, and physical activity. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Health Behavior from Indiana University, Master of Education in Health and Physical Education from the University of Louisville, and Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary. Terry and his wife have two kids in college.  Terry really enjoys being outside, especially on a bike.

Dr. Laura Kettel Khan is currently the Senior Scientist in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.  Dr. Kettel Khan is internationally known in the field of obesity prevention evaluation methodology and research design of multi-sectoral interventions and serves on numerous national advisory committees related to evaluation which build the evidence for policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies for healthy communities.  She represents the CDC on numerous national partnerships with public and private funders which focus on healthy eating and active living.  Dr. Kettel Khan graduated with a doctoral degree in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Arizona in 1992, finished her post-doctoral training at Cornell University in 1994, after which she joined the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Department of International Nutrition, followed by her current position at the CDC since 1996. She has authored more than 150 peer reviewed articles and book chapters. 

Dr. Alyssa Robillard believes in social justice as a core foundation of public health. In both her academic and consulting work, she is committed to promoting health and health equity—especially among those for whom the burden of adverse health outcomes is high and the web of social and structural determinants is complex. In various roles ranging from health educator, faculty, researcher, and consultant, she has worked to address racial inequities across numerous areas, including HIV. She received her post-secondary training from Xavier University of Louisiana and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Public Health.