The Task Force........

Previous Task Force Member Bio Sketches: 

Ross C. Brownson, PhD completes his tenure on the Task Force on Community Preventive Services in February 2003. He is professor of epidemiology and chair of the Department of Community Health at the Saint Louis University School of Public Health where he teaches courses in Applied Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Public Health. Dr. Brownson also directs the Prevention Research Center. In this capacity, he is involved in numerous community-based interventions designed to reduce modifiable risk factors such as physical inactivity and tobacco use. In particular, he is interested in the impacts of environmental and policy interventions on health behaviors. Dr. Brownson is the author of three books and over 100 peer-reviewed articles. His research is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by the National Institutes of Health.

Mary Jane England, M.D., is President of Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts. Before joning Regis as its President in 2001, Dr. England was president of the Washington Business Group on Health (WBGH). WBGH is a nonprofit national health policy and research organization whose membership includes the nation's major employers. Dr. England serves on the Board of Allina Health System, NSF International, The Health Project and is the chair of the advisory committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's program, Making the Grade: School-Based Clinics.

Dr. England has been a featured guest on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on national legislative health care reform strategies. She is a prominent spokesperson for large employers on health care policy issues and is quoted regularly in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The New York Times, and other national and local media outlets.

Dr. England was vice president, Group Medical Services at The Prudential Insurance Company of America from 1987-1990. She was responsible for the development of mental health policy and programs for the Prudential health care system.

Before joining Prudential, Dr. England was associate dean and director of the Lucius N. Littauer Master in Public Administration (MPA) Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Dr. England was at the Kennedy School from 1983-1987.

As the first commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS) from 1979 to 1983, she helped establish and administer a new state agency for children and their families. Before her appointment at DSS, Dr. England served as the associate commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

A psychiatrist with a M.D. from Boston University School of Medicine, Dr. England received her psychiatric training at University Hospital in Boston and Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, and completed a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Boston University-Boston City Hospital Child Guidance Clinic.

In 1995, Dr. England served as president of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Women's Association. She also served on the Boards of the National Academy of Public Administration, the American College of Psychiatry, the American College of Mental Health Administration, and the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. Dr. England also served on the Board of Overseers for the U.S. Department of Commerce, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and currently serves on the DHHS Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Advisory Council and the National Institute of Mental Health Advisory Council. She currently serves on the President's Quality Forum Planning Committee.

Dr. England is the chair of the Board of Visitors of Boston University School of Public Health and a member of the Board of Visitors of Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. England holds honorary degrees from Regis College, Boston University, the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and the University of Texas. She is also a recipient of the 1995 Boston University Distinguished Service to the Community Award.

Caswell A. Evans, Jr., D.D.S., M.P.H. is currently the Executive Editor and Project Director, Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health. Based within the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health, he leads the project team in developing the report's concepts and tracking its progress while guiding the work of authors, reviewers and subject editors. His work on this project is made possible through an Interagency Personnel Agreement between Los Angeles County and the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.

For the past twelve years, prior to taking on his current role, Dr. Evans served as the Assistant Director of Health Services, Director of Public Health Programs and Services, for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. In this position he was responsible for public health services for the ten million residents of the county and was accountable for a budget of $340 million and 3200 staff.

Prior to his association with Los Angeles County, Dr. Evans was Director of the County Division of the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health in Washington State.

Dr. Evans serves as Adjunct Professor for the School of Public Health, and the School of Dentistry, at the University of California at Los Angeles; he is also an Associate Professor for the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School. He was recently appointed as Visiting Professor of Dentistry at the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery.

Dr. Evans has been elected into the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and has also served on the board of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. He is a past-president of the American Public Health Association and is the founder of the Association's Faith Community Caucus.

Dr. Evans received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Columbia University's School of Dental and Oral Surgery in New York City, and earned his Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan, School of Public Health. He is a diplomat, and currently a Board Director, of the American Board of Dental Public Health.

He has been recognized for his achievements and was the first recipient of the Beverlee A. Myers Award for Excellence in Public Health, conferred by the California State Department of Health Services. He was also honored with the prestigious Champion of Prevention Award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for his leadership in establishing a National Public Health Week.

David Fleming, MD is currently the Deputy Director for Science and Public Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA. While serving on the Task Force, Dr. Fleming was Oregon's State Epidemiologist and oversees the Center for Disease Prevention and Epidemiology within the Health Division. The programs within this center are: Acute & Communicable Disease Prevention; HIV and Sexually Transmitted Diseases and TB control; Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention; Environmental, Occupational, and Injury Epidemiology; and Vital Records. He received his MD at the State University of New York, his training in internal medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University, and his training in preventive medicine at the national Centers for Disease Control (CDC). He is on the faculty in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at OHSU and has authored or coauthored a number of scientific publications. He is a past president of CSTE, the national association of state epidemiologists.

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD is a professor of clinical psychiatry and public health at Columbia University and a research psychiatrist at New York State Psychiatric Institute. Since 1986, she has studied problems of HIV/AIDS in minority communities in the United States. Important publications of her research team include: "Psychiatric implications of displacement: contributions from the psychology of place," in the American Journal of Psychiatry;"Promoting social cohesion to improve health," in the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association; "Injury and anomie: the effects of violence on an inner-city community," in the American Journal of Public Health; and "Building momentum: an ethnographic study of inner-city redevelopment," in the American Journal of Public Health. Most recently, Dr. Fullilove has published The House of Joshua: Mediations on Family and Place, a collection of essays that explores the importance of place in shaping family life. Dr. Fullilove received her undergraduate education at Bryn Mawr College, and her Masters in Nutrition and medical degree from Columbia University. She trained in psychiatry at New York Hospital-Westchester Division and Montefiore Hospital. She has received numerous awards for her work and was selected for inclusion in Best Doctors in America.

George J. Isham, M.D., M.S. is medical director and chief health officer for HealthPartners, a family of nonprofit Minnesota health care organizations focused on improving the health of its members, its patients, and the community. He is active in strategic planning and policy issues and coordinates and supports quality and medical management activities. He is responsible for health promotion and disease prevention, research, and health professionals' education at HealthPartners. He is a founding board member of and key liaison to the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement, a collaborative of Twin Cities medical groups and health plans that is implementing clinical practice guidelines in Minnesota. Dr. Isham provides leadership for Partners for Better Health, HealthPartners' initiative for improving the health of its members. Dr. Isham currently co-chairs the National Committee on Quality Assurance's (NCQA) committee on performance measurement, which oversees the Health Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS). Dr. Isham is currently on the board of directors of the Alliance of Community Health Plans. He serves on the Institute of Medicines' Board of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Dr. Isham received his master of science in preventive medicine/administrative medicine at the University of Wisconsin Madison, and his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Illinois. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison.

Charles S. Mahan, M.D. is Professor of Community and Family Health in the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida and Program Director of Maternal and Child Health Policy for the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies. He holds a joint appointment as Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the USF College of Medicine.

He was raised in West Virginia and received his MD degree from Northwestern and did his residency training at the University of Minnesota where he returned to join the faculty. He moved to Florida in 1974 to be Director of Ambulatory Services for Women at the University of Florida and Director of the North Central Florida Maternal and Infant Care Program. He has been Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Florida College of Medicine since 1974. He was Florida's State Health Officer from 1988 to 1995 and former Dean of the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida from 1995 -2002. He is Past President of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and currently serves as Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the HHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality, the Board of Directors of the National Association of Childbearing Centers, and HHS Bright Futures for Women's Health and Wellness Committee.

Patricia Dolan Mullen, DrPH served as vice-chair of the Task Force from 2002-2004. She is currently Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health and is a Senior Investigator and Training Director for the Center for Health Promotion Research and Development. She is completing her term as Chair of the School of Public Health Faculty. She completed her master’s and doctoral degrees in Public Health Education at the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health before postdoctoral training at The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene. Dr. Mullen has worked previously with Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound and the U.S. Public Health Service. She Dr. Mullen is known nationally for her work in women’s health, and she has directed numerous funded research projects related to aspects of smoking and pregnancy, the risk of an alcohol-exposed pregnancy, and meta-analyses in various topic areas. Dr. Mullen has served on the U.S. Public Health Service Expert Panel on the Content of Prenatal Care and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Smoking Cessation Clinical Guideline Panel. Dr. Mullen is an adviser to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Smoke Free Families Initiative on the dissemination of brief counseling in private and public maternity care and is the author of numerous research papers, chapters, and monographs.

Susan C. Scrimshaw, PhD completes her tenure on the Task Force on Community Preventive Services in February 2003. She is currently dean of the School of Public Health, and Professor of Community Health Sciences and Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Previously, at UCLA, Dr. Scrimshaw was Professor of Public Health and Anthropology (1975-94) and Associate Dean for Academic Programs for the School of Public Health (1988-94). Dr. Scrimshaw has conducted research projects focusing on family planning and fertility decision making, improving pregnancy outcomes, and child survival programs, violence prevention, and on culturally appropriate delivery of health care and has also written extensively on the combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies for research and for program development and evaluation. She developed (with co-author Elena Hurtado) the Rapid Anthropological Assessment Procedures (RAP) guidelines for nutrition and primary health care program planning and evaluation, which have also been adapted for use with family planning, epilepsy, infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, and water. Dr. Scrimshaw was President of the Society for Medical Anthropology in 1985. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine; a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association, Society for Applied Anthropology. She has received the Margaret Mead Award; appointment to the Chicago Board of Health by Mayor Richard M. Daley; and the Award of Merit in Public Health, presented by President Vicente Fox of Mexico among other awards. Dr. Scrimshaw was appointed to the Institute of Medicine's Committees on Cancer Research Among Minorities and the Medically Underserved, the NIH Priority Setting Process, and currently is chair of the IOM Committee on Communication for Behavior Change in the 21st Century: Improving the Health for Diverse Populations. She is also Chair of the Association of Schools of Public Health, a member and former President of the Board of Governors of the US-Mexico Foundation for Science, a member of the IOM's Board on Global Health, and a member of Research! America's Board of Directors. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1974.

Robert S. Thompson, M.D., completes his tenure with the Task Force on Community Preventive Services in February 2003. He is Director, Department of Preventive Care, Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound in Seattle, Washington, and has held this post since 1993. He is also a Clinical Professor, Department of Health Services, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington. Dr. Thompson's interests include population based, evidence-based approaches to the delivery of preventive care services; effectiveness and outcomes research; systems approaches to improve the delivery of preventive care services; continuous quality improvement; and injury and cancer epidemiology. He is also a pediatric primary care physician. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, and is currently the principal investigator in several research projects, including Longterm Healthcare Effects of Domestic Violence (AHRQ); Healthy Steps in Integrated Delivery Systems (Kaiser Permanente); and Translating Chlamydia Screening Guidelines into Practice (NIH). Dr. Thompson is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Presidential Letter of Commendation for Review of research literature on effectiveness .08 Blood Alcohol Concentration laws to reduce alcohol-related deaths and injuries (2001); and three CDC awards: the Alexander D. Langmuir award for "shoe leather" epidemiology, 1969; the Directors Award, for conducting a systematic review of the effectiveness of the 0.8% blood alcohol concentration laws (2001); and the Directors Award, for participation in guiding the development and conducting scientific work on the systematic reviews of the effectiveness of motor vehicle injury prevention strategies for the Guide to Community Prevention Services (2002). Dr. Thompson received his MD from Johns Hopkins University in 1965.