Social Determinants of Health, Part 3
“Health in All Policies: Designing Cross-sector Policies to Improve Health”
Brown University, April 11, 2012
Speaker Biographies
Patricia Nolan, MD, MPH, Moderator
Dr. Nolan is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice of Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University and is co-director of the Community Health Clerkship. Her teaching role includes undergraduate and medical school courses. Dr. Nolan is principal investigator for Brown’s portion of the CT-RI Public Health Training Center funded through Yale University by HRSA. She also serves as the executive director of the Rhode Island Public Health Institute, an independent non-profit organization. The Institute is currently working to promote community health in Rhode Island through community health and environmental assessments, health information dissemination, and public health workforce training.
Dr. Nolan served two five-year terms as Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health. She has previously held public health leadership positions in Colorado as Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Arizona as Director of the Pima County Health Department and later as Medical Director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, and Illinois as an Associate Director for Health Regulation and Environmental Health in the Illinois Department of Public Health. She began her public health career in New York City in the 1970s. She holds BS and MD degrees from McGill University. She earned her MPH degree from Columbia University.
Panelists
Dannie Ritchie, MD, MPH
Since completion of her MPH, Dannie Ritchie has focused her research on how public policy and social conditions promote health disparities. She works with Brown students, faculty and the diverse communities of Rhode Island to establish culturally appropriate community-driven health promotion. As the Director of the Transcultural Community Health Initiative (TCHI), Ritchie has lead interdisciplinary, crossinstitutional and community groups to address health disparities and promote health equity. A major objective of this initiative has been to promote the recognition of the community health worker (CHW) workforce. The initiative has led to the development of an entry-level core skills CHW course.
Ritchie has been a consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's "Making Connection" policy paper series on CHWs in Rhode Island.She also collaborated with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training to produce a first-in-the-nation, statewide survey on the CHW workforce. Ritchie took the lead in performing a feasibility study that lead to the formation of the CHW Association of Rhode Island. Her work with national leaders in the CHW section of the American Public Health Association led the Federal Department of Labor to classify the CHW as a professional occupation in July of 2010. In Rhode Island, Ritchie led the successful effort to pass the 2011 state law that established the Commission on Health Advocacy and Equity. She is currently a nominated member on the Region 1 Health Equity Council.
Ralph Fuccillo, M.A.
Ralph Fuccillo has served as President of the DentaQuest Foundation (formerly Oral Health Foundation) since 2006. He is a seasoned leader in the nonprofit sector, with a career that has included professional and volunteer experiences in education, health and human services, and organizational development. His work has focused on disease prevention and health promotion, on the social determinants of health, policy development, and behavior change to reduce injury and violence, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, other preventable illnesses and oral health.
Through his board service to nonprofit organizations, he carries his collaborative leadership approach to national and local organizations such as The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Program (Chair), Elderhostel, The Massachusetts Dental Society Foundation, and Neighborhood Health Plan. He has served as the President of the Massachusetts Health Council, the AIDS Action Committee Board of Directors, and as a leader in several regional and national prevention programs.Fuccillo is a frequent speaker on health and philanthropy. He is an advocate for the underserved, health equity, and for civic engagement and currently serves as the co-chair for the Region 1 Health Equity Council for the National Partnership for Action.
Lindsay Rosenfeld, ScD, ScM
Lindsay Rosenfeld is a social epidemiologist whose research focuses the health impacts of “non-health” policies and programs, particularly the built environment, urban planning and design, housing, neighborhoods, education, (im)migration, and health literacy. She is a research scientist with a team focused on child equity, and particularly the social determinants of health and racial/ethnic health disparities, at the Institute on Child, Youth, and Family Policy at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Rosenfeld is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Northeastern University’s Institute on Urban Health Research. Throughout her career, she has served in numerous research, policy, teaching, and community social-service capacities — and is passionate about translating research into policy.
Dr. Rosenfeld has varied experience with Health Impact Assessment, including participating in two Massachusetts Child Health Impact Assessments (2005, 2006) concerning the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program and Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. She served as a reviewer on the newly released National Research Council report: “Improving Health in the United States: The Role of Health Impact Assessment” (2011). She is also finishing a manuscript about the use of evidence in Health Impact Assessment (HIA). She has presented on various HIA issues for a number of academic, practitioner, and public audiences. Dr. Rosenfeld earned her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from Brown University and a master’s degree and doctorate in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health.