2004 STD Prevention Conference - Speaker Biographies

Plenary and Mini-Plenary Speakers

Peter Bearman, PhD, is the Chair of the Department of Sociology at Columbia University in New York City. He also serves as Director of Columbia’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Center for the Social Sciences. Dr. Bearman also is an Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He sits on the editorial board of the American Journal of Sociology and is general editor of Kinship, Networks, and History. He serves on numerous committees and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Bearman received his doctoral degree in sociology from Harvard University and his undergraduate degree in sociology from Brown University.

Virginia A. Caine, MD, is Director of the Marion County Health Department in Indianapolis as well as Associate Professor of Medicine for the Infectious Diseases Division of the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Caine is also the President-Elect of the American Public Health Association. She is active in several professional societies including the National Association of County & City Health Officials, the National Medical Association, CDC Committee Credentialing for Public Health Workforce, CDC Bioterrorism and Emergency Preparedness Committee, and the Department of Health & Human Services Steering Committee for the Bright Futures for Women Initiative. Among her numerous honors is the American Public Health Association’s “New Leadership” Award. Dr. Caine earned her undergraduate degree from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota and her medical degree from the University of New York-Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. She completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati and received her infectious disease training at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Arthur L. Caplan, PhD, is currently the Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. He also serves as Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Caplan writes a regular column on bioethics for MSNBC.com and is a frequent guest and commentator on numerous well respected news shows, newspapers and other media outlets. He is the author or editor of 25 books and over 500 papers in peerreviewed journals of medicine, science, philosophy, bioethics and health policy. He is the recipient of many awards and honors including the McGovern Medal of the American Medical Writers Association, Person of the Year-2001 from USA Today, and one of the fifty most influential people in American healthcare, according to Modern Health Care magazine. Dr. Caplan has served on numerous national and international committees, including the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning, the Advisory Committee to the Department of Health and Human Services on Blood Safety and Availability, and the special advisory panel to the National Institutes of Mental Health on human experimentation on vulnerable subjects. Dr. Caplan completed his undergraduate work at Brandeis University and received his doctorate in the history and philosophy of science from Columbia University.

John M. Douglas Jr., MD, is currently Director of the Division of STD Prevention, CDC. As Director of DSTDP, Dr. Douglas is responsible for developing and directing CDC’s national STD prevention programs and related research in behavioral science, epidemiology and surveillance, health services, and program evaluation. Previously, he served as Director of STD Control at the Denver Department of Health and Hospitals; Attending Physician in Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Denver Health Medical Center; Medical Director, Denver Metro Health STD Clinic; and Medical Director of the Denver STD Prevention Training Center. He serves on numerous national advisory committees and is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and several books. Dr. Douglas received his undergraduate degree from Davidson College and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.

Carlie Ebel, is the Senior Director of Program Development for the American Social Health Association (ASHA). He is the former managing editor of Sexual Health Magazine and sexhealth.com, a comprehensive health website. Ebel has published on a range of sexuality topics over the past decade, authoring three books and dozens of articles for the lay press. His books include Sexual Health: Questions You Have, Answers You Need and Managing Herpes: How to Live and Love with a Chronic STD. In his work with ASHA, Ebel has directed patient support and education programs on genital herpes and genital HPV and has conducted survey research on attitudes and knowledge concerning viral STDs. Ebel has received numerous awards, including a World Hunger Year prize for journalism awarded at the United Nations in 1984. He completed his undergraduate degree in anthropology at Duke University.

Kevin Fenton, MBBS (Hons), MSc, Dip GUM, MFPHM, is a medically qualified epidemiologist who holds a joint appointment as Head of the HIV/STI Division at the Health Protection Agency Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, and Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology and Public Health at the Department of STDs, Royal Free and University College Medical School in London. His specialist areas of responsibility are STI and Behavioural Surveillance, with specific interest in: STI outbreak management; gonococcal antimicrobial resistance; chlamydia screening; syphilis prevention and control. Fenton leads a small research team working on Migration, Ethnicity and Sexual Health at the Department of STDs. He works with a range of British national organizations and committees involved in sexual health. Fenton is chair of the National Chlamydia Screening Steering Groups and co-chair of a national forum on African HIV Research.

Maxine Henderson, RN, BS, is a graduate of St. Luke’s School of Nursing and North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. She completed a post-graduate program in OR Administration at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International. Ms. Henderson has 35 years experience in nursing management in acute, long term, and ambulatory care settings. She is currently Director of Quality Improvement for Family HealthCare Center, a federally qualified and Joint Commission Accredited Community Health Center in Fargo, which has a strong focus on chronic disease management and preventive services for underserved and ethnically diverse populations.

King K. Holmes, MD, PhD, is the Director for the Center for AIDS and STD at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and head of Infectious Diseases at Harborview Medical Center. Dr. Holmes is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Hoechst Marion Roussel Award from the American Society of Microbiology. He serves on numerous national and international committees focused on AIDS and STDs and has served on numerous boards and advisory committees. Dr. Holmes has written more than 400 manuscripts and chapters as well as 11 books. He received his medical degree from Cornell University and his doctorate in microbiology from the University of Hawaii.

Loretta Sweet Jemmott, PhD, FAAN, RN, established and directs the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing’s Center for Urban Health Research and is co-chair of the AIDS Research Behavior and Social Science Research Core. Dr. Jemmott has received numerous prestigious awards for significant contributions to her profession, to the field of HIV prevention research and to the community. Two such honors are the US Congressional Merit Award and membership in the Institute of Medicine. Some of the awards received in 2001-2002 include the “Women Making a Difference Award” from the Philadelphia City Council, the 2001 Exemplary Substance Abuse Prevention Award from CSAP and the “HIV Prevention Curriculum Award” from CDC. CDC selected three of her HIV Prevention Curricula as model curricula to be disseminated nationally in their dissemination project: “Research to Classroom – Programs that Work.” Dr. Jemmott received her doctorate in education and her graduate degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania. She received her undergraduate degree in nursing from Hampton University.

William J. Kassler, MD, MPH, is the State Medical Director of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth University and a volunteer physician at Manchester Community Health Center. Prior to his move to New Hampshire in 1998, Dr. Kassler established and served as Chief of the Health Services Research and Evaluation Branch at CDC’s Division of STD Prevention. In 2003, Dr. Kassler received the March of Dimes, Physician Leadership Award. In addition, the Bi-State Primary Care Association presented him with the President’s Award for outstanding contributions and dedication to community- based access to care for the poor and disadvantaged. He serves as the State Chair of the March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign and is the Secretary/Treasurer and Chair of the Informatics Policy Committee of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. He also sits on the New Hampshire Public Health Association Board of Directors. Dr. Kassler received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts and his MPH from the University of California at Berkeley.

Laura A. Koutsky, PhD, is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle. She serves as the Co-Track Director of the STD/HIV Training Grant at the University of Washington. She is also on the Medical Devices Advisory Committee for the US Food and Drug Administration, and chairs the Steering Committee for Merck Research Laboratories Phase III Prophylactic HPV Vaccines Trials. Dr. Koutsky is widely published in peer-reviewed journals. She is the recipient of the 2003 ASTDA Achievement Award. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Oregon and her doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Washington.

Dorothy Mann, has been the Executive Director of the Family Planning Council in Philadelphia since 1977. The Council is a private, non-profit agency and is the recipient of all public funds for family planning services in the five-county Philadelphia area. In addition, the Council administers specialized programs to prevent teen pregnancy, HIV infection and other STDs among low-income populations. The Council is the recipient of Ryan White Title I, II and IV funds for the care of women, children, youth and families infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The Council is a major provider of screening for breast and cervical cancer in older uninsured women. With a budget of over $16 million, the Council’s 30 subcontracting agencies provide family planning services to over 130,000 people. Ms. Mann is a past president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine panel that produced the Hidden Epidemic: Report on STDs in the United States. She also serves on the Alan Guttmacher Institute Board of Directors. She is a founding member and serves on the Board of the AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth and Families.

Donald P. Orr, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is the Director of Adolescent Medicine and Director of Adolescent/Young Adults Diabetes Program at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Orr serves on the Peer Review Oversight Group in the Office of the Director at the National Institutes of Health, the Ad Hoc Committee on Interdisciplinary Research for the Society for Adolescent Medicine, the Council on Pediatric Research for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Appeals Panel for Pediatric Adolescent Medicine for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Dr. Orr has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and serves as a consultant to numerous national organizations. He was also the recipient of the 2003 Doris Merrit Award for Leadership from Indiana University School of Nursing. Dr. Orr received his undergraduate degree from Ohio State University and his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Thomas A. Peterman, MD, MS, is the Chief of the Field Epidemiology Unit for the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch of the Division of STD Prevention at CDC in Atlanta. Dr. Peterman conducts and coordinates studies to prevent STDs including, evaluations of syphilis surveillance, development of performance measures, and approaches to treating STD patients and their partners. Prior to joining the Division of STD Prevention, he was a Section Chief for the Prevention Services Research Branch at the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at CDC. He has served on numerous national and international committees and is widely published. Dr. Peterman completed his undergraduate degree at Kalamazoo College and his medical degree from the University of Michigan.

Thomas C. Quinn, MD, MSc, is Senior Investigator and Head of the Section on International AIDS Research in the Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Since 1981, he has been assigned to the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he is a Professor of Medicine. He also holds adjunct appointments in the Departments of International Health, Epidemiology, and Immunology and Molecular Microbiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. He currently directs the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine P3 HIV/AIDS Research Facility and the International STD Research Laboratory. Dr. Quinn is an alternate member of the Technical Panel of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, and has been an Advisor/Consultant on HIV and STDs to the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and the US Food and Drug Administration. He is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and a member of the American Association of Physicians. He is the author of nearly 700 publications on HIV, STDs, and infectious diseases.

Sylvie Ratelle, MD, MPH, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts and Adjunct Professor with the University of Massachusetts School of Public Health. She is also the Medical Director for the Division of STD Prevention, Massachusetts Department of Public Health; Director of the STD/HIV Prevention Training Center of New England; and Associate Director of the Preventive Medicine Program, University of Massachusetts. Dr. Ratelle received her undergraduate degree from the College Jean-de-Brebeuf-Montreal, her graduate degree from Harvard School of Public Health and her medical degree from Universite de Montreal.

Edwin Clifton Sanders II, is the Senior Servant and founder of the Metropolitan Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He is also Coordinator of the Religious Leaders for More Just and Compassionate Drug Policy. Rev. Sanders serves as Pastoral Counselor at the Meharry Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program, where he is responsible for the spiritual component of all programs. He has been Director of the Southern Prison Ministry in Tennessee and Dean of the Chapel at Fisk University. He is an ordained Baptist Minister and member of many professional organizations including, the NAACP, the Ryan White Community AIDS Partnership for which he was the former chairperson, and the CDC Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention. In this latter capacity, he co-chairs the Syphilis Elimination Working Group. Rev. Sanders is frequently requested as a speaker for local and national meetings. He completed his undergraduate degree in anthropology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and since has served on the Wesleyan University Board of Trustees. Rev. Sanders has done graduate study at Yale University Divinity School and as a special student at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

Dan Savage, is the founder and editor of “The Stranger,” Seattle’s alternative newsweekly, and the award-winning author of Skipping Toward Gomorrah (Lambda Literary Award), The Kid (Pen- West Award), and Savage Love, a collection of his sex advice columns. His work has appeared on the op-ed pages of the New York Times, in the New York Times Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Rolling Stone, Nest, Salon, and other publications. He received his undergraduate degree in Theatre from University of Illinois.

Karla Schmitt, PhD, is the Chief of the Bureau of STD Prevention and Control at the Florida Department of Health. She also serves as a Preceptor for the Florida A&M University Institute of Public Health at the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Schmitt is an adjunct professor at FAMU’s School of Nursing. For 13 years, she was a registered nurse consultant for the Bureau of STD at Florida Department of Health. Dr. Schmitt is currently the chairperson of the National Coalition of STD Directors. She also serves as the Co-Chair of the Florida Department of Health Review Council for Human Subjects. Dr. Schmitt received her MPH from University of South Florida and her PhD in Nursing from the University of Florida.

Mary-Ann Shafer, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California-San Francisco and Director of Training in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Dr. Shafer is a long-time expert in research on Chlamydia trachomatis from bench to bedside to preventive services research. Her research interests include the development of health services research based on quality improvement principles applied to clinical practice, specifically in the area of increasing the delivery of preventive services to adolescents. Dr. Shafer’s clinical practice improvement project to increase STD screening in teens attending pediatric well care visits led her group to develop the current project to extend their approach of delivering preventive services to urgent care visits, since two-thirds of teens use such services exclusively each year. In addition, Dr. Shafer and colleagues have developed successful military- and high schoolbased cognitive, behavioral and skills-building intervention programs, to reduce the risk of STD/HIV and unintended pregnancy among young military populations and high school students. Dr. Shafer completed her undergraduate degree at the University of California in Davis and her medical degree at Yale School of Medicine.

David M. Stevens, MD, MA, served as Director of the Clinical Management and Professional Management Branch in the Division of Community and Migrant Health in HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care from 1988 to 2003. In this capacity, he developed and implemented the clinical quality improvement strategy for health center programs, including uniform policies for clinical services, accreditation, and focused programs that improved immunization rates and preventive services. He established the nationally recognized Health Disparities Collaboratives, a national program to improve and change health center systems. While Medical Director at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Neighborhood Family Care Center in South Bronx, he served as Chairperson of the Clinical Committee of the Bronx Perinatal Consortium, a member of the Clinical Advisory Group of the New York State Ambulatory Care Reimbursement Project and Medical Consultant to the Office of Ambulatory Care, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. Dr. Stevens recently moved to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in its Center for Clinical Quality and Patient Safety. He received his medical degree from George Washington University, his master’s degree from Brown University and his undergraduate degree from Washington University.

P. Frederick Sparling, MD, is the J. Herbert Bate Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology, Emeritus at the University of North Carolina. He also directs the North Carolina Sexually Transmitted Infections Cooperative Research Center as well as the UNC programs in biodefense research. From 1989-1999, Dr. Sparling chaired the Department of Medicine at the University of North Carolina, prior to which he was Chairperson of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Medicine. Dr. Sparling is a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Emerging Microbial Threats to Health on which he also served from 1991-1992. In 2003, this committee published Microbial Threats to Health: Emergence, Detection and Response. Dr. Sparling has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career. Currently, he chairs the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Committee for Investigators in Infectious Diseases Pathogenesis. He has published numerous research papers, reviews, book chapters, and editorials, including 6 books concentrating on subjects related to sexually transmitted diseases. He is Senior Research Fellow of the Cecil C. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and a former President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Dr. Sparling has served and is currently involved with several other professional editorial and national boards. Dr. Sparling received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.

Thomas C. Wright, Jr., MD, is Associate Professor of Pathology at Columbia University in New York City. He has served on a number of committees and task forces including the American Cancer Society’s Task Force for Cervical Cancer and the American Society of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, where he is on the Board of Directors. In 2002, Dr. Wright received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology. Dr. Wright received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Jonathan M. Zenilman, MD, is the Chief of Infectious Diseases Division at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He holds a joint appointment in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in public health and Ob/Gyn. He is also President of the American STD Association, the organization that publishes the journal, Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Dr. Zenilman began his career at CDC as an EIS officer in 1985 and began teaching at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in1989. In the mid 1990s, he held the position of Medical Director for the Baltimore City Health Department. He has received several honors and awards during his career and served on numerous advisory committees and panels. He was Conference Director for the first Joint Scientific Meeting of the American STD Association and the UK Medical Society for the Study of Venereal Disease in May 2000. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Zenilman received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his medical degree from State University of New York-Downstate Medical Center.