Cynthia Barrigan, RN, MPH
Ms Barrigan is the executive director of the Virginia Telehealth Network (VTN), helping to launch the statewide organization in 2007. Within its first year of operation, Ms. Barrigan has lead a statewide initiative known as VAST (Virginia Acute Stroke Telehealth Network), which is focused on reducing the time-to-care for stroke patients in rural communities.
Throughout her nearly 20-year career, Ms Barrigan has been a passionate and high-impact contributor and leader, bringing about innovative solutions for leveraging health information technology (HIT) to the benefit of underserved and remote populations in the private, public and federal health care sectors.
As a telehealth pioneer, she has designed and implemented successful telehealth programs with all Department of Defense services, the Veterans' Administration and Indian Health Services covering many clinical specialties.
Stephen serves as Senior Staff Attorney/Methodologist for the Joint Commission on Health Care. He received his Juris Doctor and Master of Public Policy from the College of William and Mary and his undergraduate degree in Management from North Carolina State University. Stephen has worked for a variety of organizations both in the private and public sector including three Fortune 500 companies, the Virginia Retirement System, and at the Virginia State Crime Commission.
While not a native Virginian, he now claims that right through his lovely wife Jeanette. Stephen is an avid basketball player and is very proud to play for the General Assembly in the Annual Governor - General Assembly Basketball Game towards the closing of session.
Howard Chapman, Jr.
The Executive Director of the Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems, Inc. (SVCHS), a position he has held since 1983. He also served as the CFO from 1980 to 1983 for SVCHS. The SVCHS organization operates nine programs in southwest Virginia which provided more than 50,000 patient visits last year. 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 12 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 18 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).
Chris Delcher, MS
Mr. Delcher
is a graduate of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 2003-2007, he was an epidemiologist at the Virginia Department of Health. Today, he is an analyst/biostatistician for Virginia Health Information (www.vhi.org).
After 30 years of private practice in Houston, Texas, Dr. Dickinson was hired to serve as the Executive Director of the Virginia Dental Association in 1999 and has served in that position since. While in private practice he served as a member of the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners and was a clinical examiner for Proctor and Gamble for 12 years. In 2005 he was appointed by Secretary Leavitt to serve as chairman of the National Advisory Council of the National Health Service Corp.
He currently is a national spokesperson for the American Dental Association on the subject of access to care and recently served as a member of Governor Kaine's Health Reform Commission for the state of Virginia. In May of 2008 he was recognized by the National Rural Health Association as its 'Practitioner of the Year'. He continues to look for ways to make a difference.
Shirley Dodson-McAdoo graduated Bachelor Science and Registered Nurse from University of Arkansas. Masters in Science from Medical College of Virginia and ANP-C. She has 30 years of nursing and management experience and has been OB pilot project coordinator for the Northern Neck for 2 years and President The Famiy Maternity Center of the Northern Neck.
Carolyn L. Engelhard received her Master of Arts in Public Administration from the University of Virginia in 1988. Upon graduation, Ms. Engelhard received the Marcia S. Mashaw Award in Public Administration. Ms. Engelhard is the program director of The Master of Science in Clinical Research in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. In addition, she is a health policy analyst and holds the academic rank of assistant professor. Ms. Engelhard's academic activities include and studying and monitoring changes in health policy at the federal and state governmental levels, providing technical and academic services to agencies within the Commonwealth of Virginia, and teaching in both the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine.
Ms. Engelhard has presented extensively and written about national health care reform efforts and their demise. Ms. Engelhard's latest project is a book written in collaboration with Dr. Arthur Garson, Jr., the VP and Provost of UVA. The book examines the myths surrounding the U.S. health care system. The book was published in the Spring of 2007 by Rowman and Littlefield publishers.
Arthur Garson, Jr., is the Executive Vice President and Provost of the University of Virginia and the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Health Science and Public Policy. He is responsible for the planning and operations of the University's 10 schools, as well as academic planning. He co-chairs the Commission on the Future of the University. In 2002, Dr. Garson was appointed Vice President and Dean of the University of Virginia's School of Medicine. During his tenure as dean, he led health-system wide strategic and operational planning; as well, the School of Medicine started a Master of Public Health program, the Academy of Distinguished Educators, the Center on Health Care Disparities, the Patient Education Institute, the Medical Education Research Institute, and the Virginia Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (a joint effort among several schools).
Dr. Garson helped to originate and draft a bill that has recently been introduced into both houses of the US Congress, the "Health Partnership Act" (S. 325 and H.R. 5606), which fund grants to states for innovations to improve coverage for the uninsured, quality, and efficiency.
Mr. Gaskins is the Associate Director of Recruitment and Retention for the Virginia Community Healthcare Association. He works closely with fellow R&R staffer Margaret King to provide support to the Association's members in the area of recruitment and retention. Previously, Mr. Gaskins held the position of Associate Director of Membership services where he was responsible for recruiting new members, conducting membership surveys and assisting with training opportunities for members. He is now entering his fifth year with the Association.
Prior to joining the Association, Mr. Gaskins worked for the Tobacco Use Control Project at the Virginia Department of Health as the Project Coordinator. Mr. Gaskins is a graduate of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia where he received a Bachelor of Science in Government Administration with a concentration of study in Criminal Justice.
Joyce Green Pastors, RD, MS, CDE
is an Assistant Professor of Education in the Internal Medicine/Endocrine Division at the University of Virginia (UVA) Medical School. She is a dietitian and certified diabetes educator and has been employed at UVA in the Virginia Center for Diabetes Professional Education for the past 25 years.
Joyce has professional interests in the areas of nutrition management and education, lifestyle change as it relates to the management of obesity and type 2 diabetes, and communication and counseling skills,. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and authored several books, manuals, and book chapters on these topics. She has also been an invited speaker on these topics on many occasions, in Virginia, nationally, and internationally.
Joyce has been involved in many state and national organizations over the past 25 years, serving as the Chairman of the American Dietetic Association Diabetes Care and Education Practice Group in 1987; she received the Distinguished Service Award from that group in 1991. She was also a co-founder of the Central Virginia Association of Diabetes Educators in 1988, and assisted in the formation of the Virginia Diabetes Council in 1999. She is currently serving as co-chair of the local area Childhood Obesity Task Force.
Mrs. Harris joined the Virginia Department of Health, Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy in May 2005 as the Health Workforce Incentives Coordinator and now supports the office as the Healthcare Workforce manager. In this capacity, she is responsible for the day-to-day management and oversight of OMHPHP health workforce initiatives and programs, while promoting health equity and social justice. As well, she manages several healthcare workforce incentive programs that improve access to care by increasing the number of practitioners in Virginia's vulnerable areas. Mrs. Harris provides leadership to the Virginia Recruitment and Retention Collaboration Team, and serves on the Virginia Peninsula Physician Initiative Committee, and the Virginia Statewide Area Health Center Program Board of Advisors.
Mrs. Harris has over fourteen years of health workforce related professional experiences including serving as: Director of Admissions and Minority Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Medicine; Assistant Dean of Diversity and Minority Affairs at Jefferson Medical College; and Pre-Medical Advisor at the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Mrs. Harris has a strong desire to improve access to healthcare in medically underserved areas as she is a native of Millboro, Virginia. She received her bachelor's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and her Masters of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University.
Jessica Jordan has been a certified nurse-midwife for 14 years, and delivered over 600 babies. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from William and Mary, but decided on a change of career after her last child was born with a nurse-midwife. She received her nursing degree from Medical College of Virginia, and her midwifery degree from Frontier Nursing Service, with a Master's in Nursing from Case Western Reserve.
For most of her midwifery career, she has been the legislative chair of the Virginia Chapter of Nurse-Midwives, and worked hard to change the regulatory status of nurse-midwives, as well as lobbying for funding for the pilot project birth centers. She also serves on the Virginia Maternal Mortality Review Team of the Chief Medical Examiner.
She has worked as a clinician in both the public and private sector. Currently, she is working part-time at a freestanding birth center in Northern Virginia, as well as part-time clinician for the Care-A-Van. In her spare time, she volunteers at Crossover Health Ministries giving prenatal care to Hispanic women. She is a native of Richmond, Virginia, and is married with three grown children..
Wilton Kennedy, PA-C, MMSc has been a PA since 1993. He attended PA school at Emory University in Atlanta. He received his doctorate in health Sciences from Nova Southeastern University in 2008.
As a recipient of the National Health Service Scholarship, he worked at Blue Ridge health center, a Migrant and Community Health Center in Hendersonville, NC until 2000. There he practiced primary care and had a large patient population base of migrant and seasonal farm-workers.
In 2000 he accepted a position at JCHS and became the full time acting Program Director in June, 2004. His interest in migrant farm-worker issues, primary care, international health and chronic disease management. He continues to practice in the Emergency department at a local hospital..
Laura LaRue, MS, CFNP, APN-BC
Ms. LaRue
graduated Summa Cum Lauda from VA Commonwealth University with a MS in the Family Nurse Practitioner Curriculum in 1995. She also completed her BSN at VCU and graduated Summa Cum Lauda in 1991. After completing her FNP degree, Laura worked nine years at the Family Care Center in Fries, VA, which was a Rural Health Clinic owned by Twin County Regional Healthcare. She taught as adjunct faculty for Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University. From 2003-Jan. 2007, she provided FNP services with Radford University Family Health Clinics, first part-time in the mobile outreach program in Galax from 2003-2005 and then full-time in both the on-campus and mobile outreach clinics from 2005-2007. Since the spring semester of 2007, she has combined a full-time faculty position in the RU School of Nursing with faculty practice. Currently she is employed part-time at Family Medicine of Woodlawn in southwest VA and with the Emergency Physicians Management Group (EPMG) at the Twin County Emergency Department providing emergent care in a Fast Track. This fall semester she started courses toward her DNP at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
A life-long resident of southwest Virginia, she has an interest in rural health, advanced practice nursing and education of future nurses. Her specialty as a Family Nurse Practitioner gives her the opportunity to work with all ages from birth to the elderly.
Tony Lawson is the Director of Mountain Empire PACE, a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly based at Mountain Empire Older Citizens, Inc. in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Lawson was Executive Director of the Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium from 1999 to 2007 and was Executive Director of Stone Mountain Health Services from 1985 to 1995.
Lawson was educated at the University of Virginia's College at Wise and the University of Virginia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He holds certificates from the Management Academy of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the School of Theology at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. He is the co-author of High Hopes to High Walls: A Documentary History of Wise County, Virginia (1972), Health Care Access in Rural Appalachia (2001), and Population Health in Southwest Virginia (2005).
Colleen Lynch serves as the Director of Performance Measurement & Improvement for Community Care Network of Virginia, a statewide primary care provider network and healthcare management company that supports statewide federally qualified health center activities. In her role as Director, Performance Measurement & Improvement, she is responsible for the ongoing development, implementation, coordination and evaluation of the network performance improvement program and for integrating information management into a variety of process improvement models to drive decision making.
Colleen has more than 20 years of quality improvement and risk management experience in a variety of settings including the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) program, academic medical centers, medical malpractice insurance companies and integrated healthcare systems of acute care hospitals, physician practices and home health agencies. Previously, she was the national project director for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services QIO program activities for the ambulatory/physician office setting, supporting federally designated QIOs in every state and US territory. In this role, she directed all operational and administrative activities for a national quality improvement initiative designed to achieve transformational change in primary care physician offices with respect to organizational culture change, IT systems improvement, care process redesign and clinical performance measurement and improvement.
Dr. Janet McDaniel is Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator at Radford University School of Nursing. She has a BSN from Berea College, a Master of Public Health Nursing from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a PhD in Family and Child Development from Virginia Tech, and a post-doctoral Family Nurse Practitioner Certificate from the University of Tennessee at Memphis. She has taught nursing at the Radford University for almost 30 years and is planning to retire in December 2008.
In addition, to her faculty responsibilities, she is Project Director for a HRSA Planning Grant to establish a Community Health Center in Radford, VA. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Rural Health Association and on the VA State Health Plan Workforce Taskforce. As Graduate Program Coordinator, Dr. McDaniel has worked with Dr. Kathy LaSala, Director, and Graduate Faculty in the School of Nursing to develop the Curriculum for the Doctorate of Nursing Practice that is currently being reviewed by the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV).
Virginia House of Delegates, District 7. Board of Trustees ~ Center for Rural Virginia
Dave Nutter is serving his fourth term as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. First elected in 2001, he serves on the Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions; Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety; and the Committee on Science and Technology. In 2006 he was also appointed to the Joint Commission on Health Care, a joint committee composed of members of the House and Senate that looks at long term issues confronting health policy.
During his tenure in the House of Delegates, Dave has also been appointed to serve on a number of special committees created by the General Assembly as a way to provide more in-depth analysis of critical issues facing the Commonwealth. This includes the following: Commission on Telecommunications Tax Policy; Commission on Workforce Development; and the Commission to Enhance Math & Science Education. He also serves on the boards of the Center for Rural Development and Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center.
Through Dave's work in the General Assembly, he has been recognized as Legislator of the Year by the Career and Technical Educators Association of Virginia. He has also received a distinguished service award from the Free Clinics Association of Virginia.
Dave has worked as an administrative faculty member at Virginia Tech since 1988 in marketing and communications. He currently works in the Office of Economic Development.
Executive Director, Virginia Board of Dentistry - Sandy has worked in Virginia's state government for 24 years serving in a variety of executive and senior management positions in health and human service agencies. She has an extensive background in the development and implementation of public policy and in compliance investigation and auditing. In April of 2001, Sandy left the position of Investigations Manager with the Department of Mental Health Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services to serve as the Executive Director of the Virginia Board of Dentistry where she oversees the licensing, regulation and discipline of dentists and dental hygienists.
She holds a BS degree in Education from Virginia Commonwealth University and resides in Hanover County.
J. Terry Saunders, Ph.D.
Terry Saunders is an Assistant Professor of Medical Education in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Director of the Virginia Center for Diabetes Professional Education (VCDPE). His doctoral degree is in community and clinical psychology from Yale University. He has taught in the psychology departments of the University of British Columbia and the University of Virginia. He has been at the UVA Diabetes Center since 1984, where he has directed statewide professional education programs in diabetes care and education. His research and clinical interests are in the areas of graduate medical education, innovative educational methods such as tele-education, and lifestyle change as it relates to the management of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
With the assistance and support of the VDH Office of Minority and Public Health Policy and the UVA Office of Telemedicine, he and his colleague, Joyce Green Pastors, have worked to develop efficient and effective methods for the delivery of diabetes patient and professional education to small community hospitals and community health centers in underserved and high diabetes risk areas of Virginia.
Sherry Secrest was born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia. She graduated from Virginia Tech in 1990 with a BS in Statistics. In the spring of 1991, Sherry began working for Hoechst Celanese as a process control engineer / system manager in the Narrows, Virginia manufacturing facility. During her time with Celanese she held several positions including Industrial Engineer and Performance Management Consultant.
In 2001, Sherry moved back to Roanoke and began working as a healthcare consultant for Carilion. During her time as a consultant, Sherry had the privilege to work on both administrative as well as clinical projects. During her time with Carilion, she was introduced to the role of a physician assistant and had the pleasure of working with a physician who helped start the first PA program at Duke. Through her work, Sherry (with a little help from God) discovered her passion for medicine and decided in 2002 to return to school in preparation for applying to JCHS's PA program. At the same time, Sherry began fulfilling her clinical hour requirement for the PA program by volunteering at the Rescue Mission's clinic and thus began her work with the underserved.
In 2004, Sherry was accepted into the JCHS PA program and began her formal training in August of that year. Sherry graduated from that program in August 2006, accepted her first job as a PA in North Carolina, and began working for Goshen Medical Center at the Faison location in December 2006. Goshen is a group of 16 rural FQHC clinics located in SE NC. While at Goshen she worked in Internal Medicine and in their specialty care HIV clinic.
In October 2007, Sherry accepted a new position with Monroe Health Center's new clinic in New Castle, Virginia. Monroe is also a group of FQHC clinics located in WV and VA. While working for Monroe, she worked half time at the local school wellness center that treated their K - 12 students as well as their teaching and support staff. The other half of Sherry's time was spent working at the main FP clinic in town. In August of 2008, she began working for the NRV Free Clinic at the Giles County satellite. Sherry currently works with those persons who are the working poor and without insurance. She says it can be challenging but is very rewarding.
Juliana van Olphen Fehr, CNM, PhD, FACNM
Dr. van Olphen Fehr is the Creator and Coordinator of the first nurse-midwifery education program in Virginia at Shenandoah University. To increase access to nurse-midwifery education in the rural areas, she developed collaborative agreements with Old Dominion, Radford, and Johns Hopkins Universities so that graduate nursing students can obtain their nurse-midwifery education through Shenandoah University while attending these universities.
In 2004 she was appointed by Virginia's Governor Warner to a Rural Obstetrical Services Committee where she co-created legislation (HB2656) to establish pilot midwifery clinics in medically underserved areas. As Chair of the stakeholders group for HB2656, she presented a plan to the Virginia State Board of Health in 2006 for pilot project birth centers for Emporia and the Northern Neck.
Between 2004 and 2007 she was a subcontractor for Old Dominion University on Title VIII HRSA grant titled "Educating the Culturally Competent Midwife." Presently she is the PI on a Title VIII HRSA grant titled "Improving Access to Health Care in Rural and Medically Underserved Areas of Virginia with Advanced Practice Nurses." Dr. van Olphen Fehr received a BS in Special Education from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1974, a BSN from University of Virginia in 1981, a MSN with a specialty in Nurse-Midwifery from Georgetown University in 1983 and a PhD in Nursing and Health Sciences from George Mason University in 1999. She is a certified nurse-midwife and a Fellow with the American College of Nurse-Midwives.
Kathy H. Wibberly, Ph.D.
Kathy is Director of the Division of Primary Care and Rural Health in the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Office of Minority Health and Public Health Policy. The Division of Primary Care and Rural Health promotes health equity throughout the Commonwealth by improving access to quality care, supporting the development of models of care and addressing barriers related to rurality.
Kathy has been working for VDH since November 1995. During her time at VDH, Kathy has spearheaded several state wide projects, including the CLAS Act - Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Health Care Services for Virginians Initiative, Virginia State Planning Grant/InsureMoreVirginians.org, Virginia Partners in Prevention Initiative, the Virginia Right Choices for Youth Initiative, and the Virginia Telehealth Network. Additionally, she has had over eight years of experience working with the VDH Office of Family Health Services conducting program evaluation research and managing multi-site program evaluations.
Kathy received her B.A in Psychology with minors in pre-medicine and youth services from Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She went on to receive her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. Her specialization was in Group Interventions. Areas of particular interest include family, cultural, and religious issues in preventive health. Kathy is married and is mom to three girls ages 12, 9 and 6.
Kelly T. Williams, RDH, MSDH
Kelly Tanner Williams serves as the 2008-2009 President of the Virginia Dental Hygienists' Association. She has been in dentistry for over 17 years and has been a licensed dental hygienist for 12 years. She obtained her Master's of Science in Dental Hygiene from Old Dominion University with specialization in Management and Administration. She is a former dental hygiene faculty of Northern Virginia Community College and Virginia Commonwealth University. She has specialized experience in outcomes assessment, preparation for accreditation, clinical and didactic instruction with dental hygienists, dentists and dentists with advanced education.
Mrs. Williams is the owner of Exceed Dental, LLC a premier national consulting and placement firm. She continues to promote high standards of care within her company and the dental profession.
Ms. Dunn has more than 30 years experience working with health and human service organizations. With those organizations she has served in various paid and volunteer capacities - as a member of the staff, faculty, Board of Directors, and Advisory Board. Her community-based clinical work as a nurse and pediatric nurse practitioner has focused on low-income, underserved rural and inner-city populations in Virginia and Washington, DC. As a health provider, she has worked in public health, private nonprofit health clinics, and academic health systems.
Since 1999, Ms. Dunn has worked as an independent consultant to nonprofit organizations, with a special interest and emphasis on capacity building and program planning and evaluation. Her clients range from small, start-up organizations to colleges and universities and statewide grant-making organizations. She enjoys providing workshops and training sessions to assist nonprofits in documenting their effectiveness and improving their performance. These sessions have been provided for the Cameron Foundation, Community Foundation Serving Greater Richmond, Virginia Association of Free Clinics, VCU's Especially for Nonprofits, and Wythe-Bland Community Foundation.
