A new Board of Directors was voted into office at the Annual Meeting on May 1, 2009.  Regional directors were appointed by the President.

Committees are being restructured for increased effectiveness.  For volunteer opportunities with VAPHA, please go to Volunteer Opportunities

Officers 2009-2011

President:                     Ruth Gaare Bernheim, JD, MPH

President-Elect:            David Matson, MD, PhD

Treasurer:                     Dan Salandro, MA, PhD

Secretary:                     Dev Nair, PhD, MPH(c)

Regional Directors

 Eastern Region:          John English, MS, REHS

 Central Region:           Joann Wakeham, RN, PhD

Western Region:          Susan West Marmagas, MPH

Past President           Chriss Ingle, RN

Biographies

President

Ruth Gaare Bernheim, JD, MPH, is director of the Division of Public Health Policy and Practice and of the Master of Public Health Program in the School of Medicine, and associate director of the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life at the University of Virginia.   She is on the Board of Directors of the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR) and the Governing Board of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and also serves on the Virginia State Pandemic Flu Advisory Board.  Ms. Gaare Bernheim, who previously was on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, has a law degree from the University of Virginia, an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a certificate in mediation from Harvard School of Public Health.  She is a faculty affiliate of the Georgetown University Kennedy Institute of Ethics.  She has served on the hospital ethics committees at both the University of Maryland Hospital and at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she headed its subcommittee on organizational ethics.

President-Elect

David O. Matson, MD, PhD is Professor of Health Professions and Pediatrics, and Director of the Graduate Program in Public Health, at Eastern Virginia Medical School and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Dr. Matson attended Baylor College of Medicine, where he obtained MD and PhD (Virology and Epidemiology) degrees. He completed a residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Pediatrics and received postgraduate training in Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Molecular Virology also at the Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Matson is board-certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Dr. Matson has over 175 scientific publications, including in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Matson’s research interests include pediatric infectious diseases, especially viral gastroenteritis. Dr. Matson was national Principal Investigator for the pivotal trial that led to licensure in 2006 of the rotavirus vaccine in the United States. This study (New Engl J Med 2006;354:23-33) was selected by the Editors of The Lancet as “Paper of the Year” for 2006. In his public health position, he has ongoing projects on malaria transmission to the fetus and pediatric malnutrition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and on healthcare delivery to the unserved in Peru. Dr. Matson is known for the conduct of large, well-designed clinical studies for the answer to important questions on viral immunity.

Secretary

Dev Nair, Ph.D. recently relocated to Virginia and is serving as the Director of Prevention at the Virginia Health Quality Center.  Prior to that he worked at the Georgia Department of Community Health, serving as their Clinical Director and Deputy Director of their Medicaid program.  In this role he was responsible for implementation of a statewide Medicaid managed care program, focused on improving the health status of our Medicaid population.  He was appointed by the Governor to a statewide mental health services commission.  Prior to moving to Georgia, he oversaw clinical and quality improvement activities for Magellan Health Services in Massachusetts, provided counseling to college students, and managed a crisis intervention team at a community mental health center.  He has a doctorate in clinical psychology and is licensed as a psychologist in Virginia and Massachusetts.  He is in the process of completing an MPH in health management and policy at Georgia State University.

Treasurer

Dan Salandro, MA, PhD has been an assistant/associate professor of Finance at Virginia Commonwealth University since 1989 and has been a college faculty member for 25 years.   He teaches Corporate Finance and Security and Portfolio Analysis with emphasis on Financial Model building.  Salandro received his Ph.D.(Finance) and MA(Economics) from the University of Pittsburgh.  Mr. Salandro has been actively involved in non-profit organizations.  He is currently on the Board of Trustees at Clearpoint Financial Solutions Inc., a national non-profit consumer credit counseling organization and Board of Directors for the American Montessori Society.  He has also served on the Boards for 1708 a Richmond Art gallery and Richmond Montessori School where he also served as Treasurer for nearly seven years.  Salandro has made presentation to the Heads of School and Business Managers annual conferences presented by Virginia Independent School Association on Strategic Financial Planning.  

 Regional Directors

Central Region: Joann Wakeham, RN, Ph.D.

 Joanne Wakeham has over 25 years public health experience at the local and state level. In addition to her public health experience she has served as a consultant and program evaluator in a non-profit environment for the Children’s AIDS Network and for the Eastern Virginia AIDS Resource Center.  She also serves as a contract instructor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency teaching courses on such topics as executive development, executive leadership, strategic management of change, and organization theory and practice. Joanne retired from the U.S. Army Reserve Nurse Corps in 2007 after serving 21 years in the military.

 Since 2005 Joanne has served as Director, Public Health Nursing for the Virginia Department of Health. Before returning to public health practice, she taught in undergraduate and graduate programs at several universities in Virginia and Iowa.

 Joanne received a diploma in nursing from E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Buffalo, NY; a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA; a Master of Science degree in nursing from Hampton University in Hampton, VA and a Doctor of Philosophy from Old Dominion University.

 She is a member of the American Nurses Association, Virginia Nurses Association, Virginia Public Health Association, the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Nursing and Sigma Theta Tau International. She serves on the Board of the Virginia Partnership for Nursing, and the VCU Community Advisory Board and has served on the UVA School of Nursing Community Public Health Leadership Advisory Council.

Eastern Region:  A. James English, Jr., MS, REHS

Jim English is Chair, School of Community and Environmental Health and Director of Environmental Health Programs in the College of Health Sciences, School of Community and Environmental Health. He has been at Old Dominion University since August of 1988, Prior to that he was the Director of Environmental Health Services and Deputy Director of Public Health for the City of Norfolk from 1982 - 1988. He served with the Department of Public health as an Environmental health professional from 1974 -1988.

Professor English is a member of the Virginia Public Health Association, National Environmental Health Association, the Virginia Environmental Health Association and the Tidewater Environmental Health Association having served as President of the latter two. Mr. English currently serves as the Chairman of the Norfolk Environmental Commission a position he has held since 1997. He has been an active member of this City Council appointed Commission since 1994. Prior to that he was a city council appointed commissioner and vice-chairman of the Norfolk Clean Community Commission from 1989 - 1994. He is also a founding board member of the Friends of Norfolk's Environment; a non-profit group dedicated to enhancing Norfolk's environment. Norfolk City Council recently appointed him to the Norfolk Public Health Services Advisory Board.  Since 1997 he has served as a Board member of the Hoffler Creek Wildlife Foundation and Preserve and is currently President of the Board.

Western Region: Susan West Marmagas, MPH

Susan West Marmagas returned to her rural roots in Blacksburg, VA in 2006 to help improve local public health in Southwest Virginia and Appalachia.  She is a Research Fellow with the Institute for Community Health at Virginia Tech.  She is helping to coordinate the development of Virginia Tech’s new MPH program as well as building links between faculty members working on public health research efforts.  She also advises the Appalachian Community Cancer Network to address potential environmental determinants of cancer in the region.

West Marmagas has over fifteen years of experience in the national public health field, most notably in the areas of children’s and women’s environmental health.  She has held leadership positions with the Collaborative on Health & Environment at Commonweal, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the National Environmental Education Foundation, and the Children’s Environmental Health Network. 

She has a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Community Health Education from UC Berkeley.  Her career has focused on engaging health professionals and scientists in protective public policy, facilitating strategic planning discussions across the health field, and implementing evidence-based policy campaigns.  West Marmagas has testified before the US Congress and has served as media spokesperson on national issues such as fish consumption, mercury pollution and children’s health.  She is an elected member of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association.  She served on US EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee from 2001-07.  She is a Site Visitor for the Council on Education for Public Health and a Fellow with the National Public Health Leadership Institute.