Patrick Hamilton - has been with the Philadelphia Regional Office of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) since October, 1998. He has worked in the area of Provider Outreach for the past five years where he has served as the Regional Rural Health Coordinator. In that role, he works closely with contacts in state rural health offices and with other rural health organizations in the states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Patrick received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia in 1996, and a Master's in Public Administration from Villanova University in 1999.
Scott W. Goodspeed, DHA, FACHE - Principal,
Stroudwater Associates
Scott W. Goodspeed has been President and CEO of four hospitals in three states. Scott's most recent book is titled Community Stewardship: Applying the Five Principles of Contemporary Governance, published by American Hospital Publishing. He is finishing a book with the working title: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard in Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations.
Scott received his doctorate in Health Administration and Leadership from the Medical University of South Carolina in 2003. His Masters degree in Hospital Administration was received from the University of Minnesota, where he received awards in recognition of his academic achievement. Scott graduated Magna Cum Laude from Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY, where he earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Administration of Health Care Services.
Jonathan is a member of the Operating and National Advisory Committees of the Center for Rural Health Works and currently is Chairman of the National Rural Health Association's Medicaid Issue Group that recently developed the NRHA's policy paper on the rural implications of national and state Medicaid policies. He is a former President of the Maine Rural Health Association. Jonathan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College; received a Master's Degree in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health; and, completed an Advanced Fellowship in Health Administration in the Presidents' Offices of the American Hospital Association and Blue Cross Association.
Chris Tilden, Ph.D. - is the Director of the Office of Local and Rural Health in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, a position he has held since 2003. He joined the state health department in 2001 as the Program Director of the State Office of Rural Health. In addition to service in state government, Chris has worked in a variety of hospital settings and in healthcare consulting. His current responsibilities include oversight of the state's liaison program with local health departments, the primary care office, migrant/farmworker health, the state trauma program, and the state office of rural health. He coordinates the Kansas Rural Health Options Project, a partnership that provides technical assistance to the 83 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in the state. In this role, he was instrumental in developing the state's quality and performance improvement program for CAHs that is recognized nationally for its innovative approach and is now being replicated in many other states.
In the last two years Chris has spoken at rural health conferences in a number of states across the country as well as at national and international conferences on rural health. He has also been an invited speaker for the Institute of Medicine and the National Conference of State Legislatures. He also lectures as a member of the adjunct faculty of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Kansas School of Medicine.
She holds a Ph.D. in Zoology and is a full professor of Animal Science, Nutrition, Physiology and Biotechnology.
Certified in Critical Incident Stress Management. Former American Red Cross Natural Disaster Mental Health Counselor and current member of the Southwest Virginia Medical Reserve Corp. Adjunct faculty for Community Counseling graduate courses for Radford University. Coordinator of Emergency Preparedness for agency and member of the Local Emergency Preparedness Committee (LEPC) for Wythe County.
Prior to coming to HRSA, Brand held faculty and administrative positions at Old Dominion University in Virginia and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Brand earned a doctoral degree in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania and masters and bachelor of science degrees in dental hygiene.
Dr. Carol N. Brooks - currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of General Practice, at the School of Dentistry, Medical College of Virginia. She graduated from VCU/MCV in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Dental Hygiene and subsequently taught in the Dental Hygiene Program at the dental school from 1977 to 1978 and then again from 1980 to 1985. During this time she was also practicing dental hygiene in the private practice setting from 1975 to 1984. In 1983, she became the Coordinator for Clinical Trials in the Department of Periodontics, organizing and administrating various clinical trials for major pharmaceutical companies conducting research in the dental school. She has also been a co-investigator in the Clinical Research Center for Periodontal Disease at the school since 1987.
Her dental education was obtained at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, where she also received a certificate in Advanced Education in General Dentistry. As a dental educator, she has held the position of Module Leader (1995 – 1997) and Director of the Advanced Education in General Dentistry Residency Program (1997 to 2003). Currently, she is Course Director of the Clinical Operative 3 and Clinical Principles of Restorative Dentistry courses for third year dental students.
Sandra Brown - joined the Virginia Department of Medical Services in July 2005 as the Program Manager of the new Smiles For Children Dental Program. She has managed the start-up of the restructured Medicaid dental program. The transformed dental program has been well received by the dental community and enrollees, with increased provider participation and dental utilization. She was elected to the Board of the Medicaid/SCHIP Dental Association in 2006 and serves as a Planning Committee Member for the National Oral Health Conference.
Ms. Brown has over 12 years of managed care experience with a background in behavioral health. She has been recognized for her achievements in leadership and program implementation and development. Ms. Brown has a Bachelor degree in Education and a Masters in Social Work. She is a Virginia Licensed Clinical Social Worker and is a certified Green Belt in Six Sigma.
Howard Chapman, Jr. - is Executive Director of the Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems, Inc. (SVCHS), a position he has held since 1983. The SVCHS organization operates nine programs in southwest Virginia which saw more than 50,000 patient visits in 2006. Mr. Chapman is serving as Chairman of the Community Care Network of Virginia (CCNV) Board of Directors and Chair of its Technology Committee. He has been a member of the CCNV Board for over 11 years. He is Treasurer for CareSpark, a Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) serving east Tennessee and southwest Virginia, and serves on the Access Workgroup and Advisory Committee of the Virginia Rural Health Plan. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the newly formed Virginia Telehealth Network (VTN). He has over 17 years of service on the Virginia Primary Care Association (VPCA) Board of Directors, serving two full terms as President. He is immediate Past Chair of the Southwest Virginia Area Health Education Center (AHEC) and the Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium (GMEC).
Kristen Gilliam - serves as the Doral Dental Outreach Coordinator for the Smiles for Children program for which she develops and implements outreach strategies aimed at increasing pediatric dental utilization throughout the Commonwealth. Her efforts of increasing program awareness thorough outreach initiatives have proven successful and are demonstrated through the increase in dental utilization for Smiles For Children members. Kristen has developed a ground breaking broken appointment initiative for the Smiles For Children program that is designed to gather information and remedy problems associated with broken appointments.
Ms. Gilliam attended James Madison University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Health Science and Public Health. She has been working in this position since the program implementation in July 2005.
Patrick Halpern - is the Associate Director of the Mental Health Association of the New River Valley headquartered in Blacksburg, VA. He received a Master of Public and International Affairs degree with a concentration in Nonprofit Management from Virginia Tech in 2005. Prior to joining the Mental Health Association in March 2007, Patrick worked for a large social service nonprofit organization in Richmond, VA developing innovative reentry and jail diversion programs. Patrick has also worked for the Nonprofit Sector Workforce Coalition as a research consultant and he has published several papers on a variety of topics affecting nonprofit organizations, including workforce issues, accountability and organizational learning.
Cheryl Harris, MSHA - serves as the Doral Dental Project Director for the Smiles For Children program and is responsible for the overall administration of the program. She has over 20 years of professional experience in various mid and senior-level management positions and has gained extensive knowledge through her years of experience in the managed behavioral health care industry. Her areas of expertise include quality management and improvement, credentialing, network management, accreditation, and compliance.
Ms. Harris is a graduate of Hampton University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Media and Virginia Commonwealth University where she received her Master of Science Degree in Health Administration. She also held certifications as a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and a Certified Provider Credentialing Specialist (CPCS).
Emily J. Hauenstein, PhD, LCP, MSN, RN, Thomas A. Saunders, III Family Professor - is director of the Southeastern Rural Mental Health Center at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. Dr. Hauenstein has conducted research studies with rural populations since 1989 focusing on mental health treatment for impoverished rural residents. Widely published Dr. Hauenstein and her research team have documented rural-urban mental health treatment disparities which are especially pronounced among white rural women. Her team also has documented racial disparities in mental health treatment rates which are no more pronounced in rural vs. urban areas. Dr. Hauenstein has conducted mental health treatment studies in rural community health centers in rural Central Virginia including group and individual psychotherapy trials, community assessment and stakeholder interviews.
Dr. Hauenstein currently is working with the Blue Ridge Medical Center in Nelson County, a community health center to design a community-based collaborative with its primary objective to disseminate quality mental health treatments to fill gaps in services for rural residents in that county and the surrounding areas. A component of that study is to determine the feasibility and acceptability of electronic mental health screening in rural populations. She is also designing a new psychotherapy study using digital story to promote recovery from depression in rural and impoverished women. Dr. Hauenstein's research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Nursing Research, Virginia Health Care Foundation, and through the Lanford and Katherine Donohoe research awards at the University of Virginia School of Nursing.
Prior to her appointment as Assistant Secretary in October 2006, she served in various positions developing programs to expand and improve services at locations of the Hospital Corporation of America. She began her professional career developing software at ChevronTexaco. She received her MHA from Virginia Commonwealth University and her B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. She is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Fredericksburg Area, and on the Madison House's Alumni Council, a committee of the Madison House's Board of Directors.
She has twice teamed up with photographer Josh Meltzer for projects on Roanoke's growing immigration community. In 2006, they produced "Land of Opportunity," a yearlong, award-winning series about Hispanic growth in Roanoke. Their 2005 series about Somali Bantu refugees, “An Unlikely Refuge,” won several national and state honors for writing, photography and online content.
In 2006, he and writer Beth Macy produced a multi-part series about Roanoke's growing Hispanic population, including two stories reported from Mexico. Josh believes in strong local community photojournalism, and advocates that reporters and photographers working at small and medium sized newspapers can produce great work that tells the readers how they relate to the rest of the world.
Madge M. Jones Professor of Nursing & Associate Dean for Research
Director, Rural Health Care Research Center
He recently returned from a Global Volunteers service project in Lima, Peru where he worked at the largest children's home in South America teaching English. This experience changed his life and led Ryan to seek out a fulfilling and meaningful opportunity at home. The mission statement of the Virginia Interfaith Center has been his motivation for the past year. He travels throughout the commonwealth to meet with and organize faith communities around justice issues.
Ryan has spent the last 6 months focused on Health Care Access. He ran a statewide health care listening tour that stopped in forty localities around the commonwealth.
Michael O. Royster, MD, MPH - is the Director of the Virginia Department of Health, Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy (OMHPHP). He was hired by the State Health Commissioner, Robert B. Stroube, MD, MPH in May 2007 after the General Assembly passed HB3034, which was introduced at the request of Governor Timothy Kaine and requires a physician to oversee minority health efforts for VDH. OMHPHP's mission is to advance health equity by identifying health inequities, assessing their root causes, and addressing them by promoting social justice, influencing policy, establishing partnerships, providing resources, and educating the public. OMHPHP serves as Virginia's state office of rural health, minority health, and primary care.
Prior to this position, Dr. Royster was the Director of the Crater Health District. The Health District serves 5 rural counties and 3 small cities with a combined population of 150,000. In that capacity, he led the health department in its efforts to assure the health of the citizens within the district. Much of his work focused on developing and sustaining diverse community partnerships in order to maintain and improve the health of the community and eliminate health inequities. Among other initiatives, he implemented outcome-based program evaluations for all health department programs and led the expansion of efforts to promote cardiovascular health, eliminate childhood lead poisoning, and reduce teen pregnancy. In addition, he worked with local university faculty to develop community-based participatory research partnerships. He was a member of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, Chronic Disease and Tobacco Workgroup.
Dr. Royster completed his undergraduate training at the University of Virginia with a degree in Biology. He obtained his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and completed a residency in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In addition, he completed the W.K. Kellogg Community Health Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Public Health. He is board certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine.
Rhonda joined the Free Clinic's Dental Program in March 2007 after working as a Program Coordinator and advocate for child health with the FAMIS Outreach Project at Radford University for over 5 years. She has chaired the local Dental work group previously under the umbrella of the NRV's Partnership for Access to Health Care (PATH) for the last three years and is also a current member of the state-wide Virginians for Improved Access to Dental Care (VIADC) and Tooth Talk groups.
Frank joined the DMHMRSAS in October of 2003 after working in West Virginia and Virginia's Community Services Boards for over 25 years in direct service and administrative roles. His community experience, as a clinician and as Executive Director of a ten-county community services board, has primarily been in rural settings, which helps Frank maintain a good understanding of the unique challenges faced by rural behavioral health care providers.
Peggy Whitehead - is the executive director of Blue Ridge Medical Center in Nelson County. She has been working closely with Emily Hauenstein on a number of research projects related to access to mental health services in rural areas. Peggy came to the center in 1991 to work with its Rural Health Outreach Program (RHOP), and became manager of this program in 1996. RHOP hosts a variety of programs designed to increase access to care to those who are underserved by helping patients to overcome barriers such as lack of transportation, lack of insurance, low income, cultural differences, disabilities, fear and distrust of the system, and rural isolation.
Lieutenant Julia Bryan - joined the Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) in the Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in April of 2007. She became an officer of the US Public Health Service in 2004. LT Bryan is the grants program coordinator for all of the grant programs within the ORHP and serves as a project officer for the Rural Health Care Outreach Services and the Rural Health Network Development Grant Programs. In addition, she is the Office's point of contact for women's health issues.
Prior to her assignment in ORHP, LT Bryan worked in HRSA's Bureau of Primary Health Care, with the Community Health Center program, overseeing grant activities for health centers in Missouri and North Carolina.
LT Bryan earned a bachelor's degree in Community Health from William Paterson University and a master's degree in Public Health from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She is currently working towards her doctorate degree in Public Administration at the University of Baltimore.
Caroline Herbert, Senior Training Coordinator - Ms. Herbert has worked for the Foundation Center – Washington, DC since July, 1998, teaching proposal writing and other grantseeking essentials. As senior training coordinator, she is responsible for designing, implementing and delivering training programs at the Foundation Center – Washington, DC. She previously served as the reference librarian/technology specialist, providing reference services in person and online. In addition, she volunteers as a member of the selection committee for The Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management.
Ms. Herbert received her M.S.L.I.S. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she worked in the Government Documents and Commerce libraries. Before becoming a librarian, Ms. Herbert worked for over two years as a fundraiser for the Ounce of Prevention Fund in Chicago.
