Committee Members
Biographical Sketches

Kenneth I. Shine, MD is Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs of The University of Texas System, which oversees the six University of Texas health institutions, including the medical, dental, and public health schools. He is the former President of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) at the National Academies, and was the founding Director of the RAND Center for Domestic and International Health Security. Dr. Shine is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, where he served as dean and provost prior to his appointment at the IOM. A cardiologist and physiologist, he has an A.B. in biochemical sciences from Harvard College and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and American College of Physicians and is a member of many other honorary and academic societies, including the Institute of Medicine. He served as Chairman of the Council of Deans of the Association of American Medical Colleges from 1991-1992, and was President of the American Heart Association from 1985-1986. Dr. Shine’s many publications are not only in the field of cardiology but also on issues of medical research, public health, and public policy. He has served as an advisor to many national commissions and chaired a number of IOM studies.

Martha N. Hill, PhD, is Dean and professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She holds joint appointments in the School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health and Dr. Hill, the 1997-1998 president of the American Heart Association, is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She serves on the IOM Board on Health Sciences Policy and was the Co-vice chair of the IOM Report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Ethnic and Racial Disparities in Health Care. Dr. Hill received her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from The Johns Hopkins University, her masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and her doctoral degree in behavioral sciences from The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Dr. Hill is internationally known for her work and research in preventing and treating hypertension and its complications among underserved blacks, particularly among young, urban black men. Her particular expertise is integrating individual providers, both medical and public health system level interactions, to improve care and outcomes for vulnerable and underserved populations. She is an active investigator and consultant on several NIH funded clinical trials. She has published extensively and serves on numerous review panels, editorial boards, and advisory committees including the Board of Directors of Research! America. Dr. Hill has also consulted on hypertension and other cardiovascular-related issues outside of the U.S. including South Africa, Scotland, Israel, and Australia.

Dan G. Blazer, III, MD, PhD, MPH, is J.P. Gibbons Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center. During Dr. Blazer’s tenure as Dean of Medical Education, he expanded a Master of Public Health program for medical school students, which now attracts over 20% of the medical school class. Dr. Blazer is the author or editor of over 30 books and author or co-author of over 300 peer-reviewed articles on topics including depression, epidemiology, and consultation liaison psychiatry. He is a fellow of the American College of Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association and is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) with expertise in medical education, religion and medicine, and preventive medicine and public health Dr. Blazer is an adjunct professor for the School of Public Health at the University of Chapel Hill and served on many IOM committees, including the committee responsible for the recent report, “Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century.”

Ted Chan, MD, is a Professor of Clinical Medicine in Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He completed both medical school and an internship in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and residency in Emergency Medicine at UCSD. Dr. Chan is currently the Medical Director of the Emergency Departments at both UCSD-Hillcrest Medical Center in San Diego and the Thornton Hospital in La Jolla. He is the clinical lead and co-PI for the NIH-funded WIISARD project (Wireless Internet Information System for MedicAl Response to Disasters). He is active in health policy and preparedness initiatives in San Diego and California. Dr. Chan chairs the San Diego Foundation Regional Disaster Board which actively funds relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts following the 2003 and 2007 wildfires in the region. He serves as Medical Director for the Metropolitan Medical Strike Team for San Diego County. Chan is editor of the Cardiology section of the Journal of Emergency Medicine; and has authored and edited three textbooks.

Vincent Covello, PhD, is the founder and Director of the Center for Risk Communication. Over the past thirty years, he has held numerous positions in academia and government, including Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences and Clinical Medicine at Columbia University. Prior to his joining the faculty at Columbia University, Dr. Covello was a senior scientist on detail at the White House Council on Environmental Quality in Washington, D.C., a Study Director at the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, and the Director of the Risk Assessment Program at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Covello received his doctorate from Columbia University and his B.A. with honors and M.A. from Cambridge University in England. He is a Past President of the Society for Risk analysis, a professional association with over 2,500 members. Dr. Covello has authored or edited over 20 books and over 75 published articles on risk assessment, management, and communication.

Edward J. Gabriel is Director, Global Crisis Management, for The Walt Disney Company, and is responsible for the development and implementation of global policy, planning, training and exercises to manage crisis for The Walt Disney Company. He is also responsible for East and West Coast Medical and Emergency Medical Operations and the Walt Disney Studio’s Fire Department. He supports and collaborates with global business units in development and testing of resumption planning, and develops policies and strategies to manage crisis. Mr. Gabriel has been an Emergency Medical Technician since 1973 and was a twenty-seven year Paramedic veteran of New York City Fire Department’s (FDNY) Emergency Medical Service (EMS). He rose through the ranks from EMT to Paramedic through Lieutenant and retired at the level of Assistant Chief/Division Commander. As Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Preparedness at the New York City Office of Emergency Management, he served as Commissioner for all preparedness and planning-related projects and initiatives. During his role with New York City he was a member of the FBI/NYC Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), and still sits on the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Emergency Care, Rescue and Transportation. He has worked with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), sitting on the Emergency Preparedness Roundtable as well as the Community Linkages in Bioterrorism Preparedness Expert Panel. He served as a member of the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS): Federal Contingency Medical Facility Working Group and the DHHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Expert Panel on Mass Casualty Medical Care. Most recently he has worked with the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) AHRQ expert panel, as Principle Author of the pre-hospital chapter of the Providing Mass Medical Care with Scarce Resource: Community Planning Guide and with the US Department of Defense, General George C. Marshall School of International Studies Program on Terrorism and Security Studies, located in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany presenting on methodologies for planning and preparedness for international leaders. He is credentialed through the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) as a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) and the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) as a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP). Mr. Gabriel holds a BA from the College of New Rochelle and an MPA from Rutgers University. Mr. Gabriel continues to lecture nationally and internationally on Crisis Management, Business Continuity, Emergency Management, Planning and Preparedness, WMD, Terrorism and Emergency Medical Topics.

Julia Gunn, MPH, RN, is Associate Director of the Communicable Disease Control Division, Boston Public Health Commission, Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Gunn has worked for the Boston Public Health Commission in the Communicable Disease Control Division for over 10 years, assuming the position of Associate Director in 2003. During this time Julia has contributed to dozens of publications and presentations enhancing our understanding of tuberculosis, HIV infection, food-borne illness, and other communicable illnesses, particularly among disadvantaged populations. She has played a key role in the development and integration of enhanced surveillance systems in Boston.

Sharona Hoffman, JD, is a Professor of Law with a secondary appointment in the Department of Bioethics. She is also the Law School's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Co-Director of the Law-Medicine Center. Professor Hoffman received her B.A. magna cum laude from Wellesley College and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. In addition, she earned an LL.M. in health law from the University of Houston. Ms. Hoffman joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve in 1999. Earlier in her career, she clerked for a federal district court judge, worked as an associate at O'Melveny & Myers, a large Los Angeles law firm, and served as a Senior Trial Attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Houston office. Professor Hoffman teaches Civil Procedure, Employment Discrimination, Religion, Ethics, and the Law seminar, Health Care and Human Rights seminar, Perspectives in Law and Biomedicine, and Health Matrix Notes Seminar. In 2007 Professor Hoffman spent four months as a guest researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention working on liability and immunity issues related to public health emergencies. She has published over twenty-five articles, most of which focus on health law and civil rights law. Her research interests include disability discrimination, biomedical research, health care coverage, race and medicine, the security of electronically-stored health information, and emergency preparedness.

Paul E. Jarris, MD, MBA, is executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. He served as medical director of Vermont’s largest nonprofit HMO, Community Health Plan from 1992–1996. He was president and CEO of Vermont Permanente Medical Group from 1998–2000, as well as CEO of Primary Care Health Partners, Vermont’s largest statewide primary care medical group from 1999–2000. From 2000–2003, he served as president of Jarris and Associates, an independent consulting firm providing services to major regional health plans and provider groups. He was appointed commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health by Governor Jim Douglas in March 2003. Dr. Jarris has has practiced family medicine for over 20 years including work in federally qualified health centers, and served as physician to an inner city school and a shelter for homeless adolescent youth. He graduated from the University of Vermont and received his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He interned at Duke-Watts Family Medicine Residency Program in Durham, North Carolina, and completed his residency at the Swedish Family Practice Residency Program in Seattle, Washington. He received an M.B.A. degree from and completed a faculty development fellowship at the University of Washington. Dr. Jarris is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Medical Management.

Âna-Marie Jones is the Executive Director of CARD - Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters, a nonprofit located in Alameda County, California. Created by local community agencies after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, CARD trains and supports nonprofits and their special needs clients in disaster preparedness, response and recovery activities. In her tenure, she has re-written and redefined CARD’s services and curriculum to be based on community building, economic empowerment and leadership development philosophies. Before joining CARD in April 2000, for three years Ms. Jones worked for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services Coastal Region on projects supporting community organizations and people with special needs. She was also the acting Executive Director of the Northern California Disaster Preparedness Network, a 5-year funding initiative dedicated to creating emergency preparedness and response resources for vulnerable and underserved communities. Ms. Jones has served on several emergency preparedness and response planning programs and committees, including the Alameda County Bio-terrorism Planning Project, the Alameda County Operational Area Council, and the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) Working Group for Alameda County. She is Co-chair of the Nonprofit Roundtable for the Oakland Chamber of Commerce and is a strong supporter of the 2-1-1 initiative - serving on the 2-1-1 Advisory Group for Eden I&R, the information and referral agency of Alameda County. Most recently Ana-Marie Jones joined the Working Group on Citizen Engagement in Health Emergency Planning, an initiative of the UPMC Center for Biosecurity. In November 2003 and in January 2005, at the request of the Japanese Central Government and Japanese research institutes, Ms. Jones toured Tokyo and Kobe sharing an alternative approach to disaster preparedness (no fear or threat-based messages) with government, emergency management, university and nonprofit leaders. In March 2005, she joined the faculty of University of California at Berkeley's School of Public Health's Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness as a guest lecturer.

Richard C. Larson, PhD, is MIT Mitsui Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and in the Engineering Systems Division. He is founding director of the Center for Engineering System Fundamentals. He has focused on operations research as applied to services industries.   He has actively conducted research on planning for and responding to disasters, including pandemic influenza. He is Past-President of INFORMS, INstitute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an INFORMS Founding Fellow, and a recipient of the INFORMS President's Award, Lanchester Prize and Kimball Medal.

John R. Lumpkin, MD, MPH, is senior vice president and director, Health Care Group at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation since 2003. Dr. Lumpkin joined the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDHP) in1985 as associate director of IDPH’s Office of Health Care Regulations, and later became the first African American to hold the position of director. Dr. Lumpkin served 6 years as chair of the National Committee for Vital and Health Statistics, advising the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on health information policy. Dr. Lumpkin is past president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a former member of the board of trustees of the Foundation for Accountability, former commissioner of the Pew Commission on Environmental Health, former board member of the National Forum for Health Care Quality Measurement and Reporting, past board member of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and past president of the Society of Teachers of Emergency Medicine. He has been the recipient of the Bill B. Smiley Award, Alan Donaldson Award, and African American History Maker Award, and was named Public Health Worker of the Year. He received his medical degree in 1974 from Northwestern University Medical School. He trained in emergency medicine at the University of Chicago and earned his M.P.H. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health. Dr. Lumpkin was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2004.

Ricardo Martinez, MD, a board-certified emergency physician, is currently the executive vice president for medical affairs and regional medical officer for The Schumacher Group, an leading emergency medicine practice management company, serving over 140 hospitals in 17 states. Dr. Martinez served five years as the 10th administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 1994-1999. He is currently a clinical professor of emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and adjunct professor of engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. A strong focus of Dr. Martinez’s leadership at NHTSA was to make motor vehicle injuries a public health priority issue. Under Dr. Martinez’s leadership, the Agency issued the two most significant safety rules in a decade and the two largest recalls in history, led the development of the International Harmonized Research Agenda on crash injury and a UN global agreement on vehicle regulation; established the National Transportation Biomechanics Research Center and the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) to bridge the gap between engineering and medicine. Dr. Martinez’ tenure oversaw the lowest fatality rate, the lowest percentage of alcohol-related fatal crashes and the highest seat belt use and child safety seat use in American history. With experience in executive positions in business, academics (Stanford, Emory), and the federal government, Dr. Martinez is a nationally recognized expert in traffic safety, emergency services, motor vehicle trauma and public health policy. He has been honored with national awards by the American Medical Association, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American Trauma Society, and the National Association of EMS Physicians. Dr. Martinez was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2004.

Joanne M. Nigg, PhD, is a Professor of Sociology the former Director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. Since 1975, she has been involved in research on the societal response to natural, technological, and environmental hazards and disasters. Currently, she is a core faculty member of the Disaster Research Center. Dr. Nigg has been a Principal or Co-Principal Investigator on over 20 research projects covering subjects such as: hazard/threat/risk awareness and behavioral response by individuals and organizations; attributions of responsibility for disaster outcomes; factors related to the development of governmental hazard reduction policies and actions; evaluations of hazard and risk reduction programs; risk perceptions and policy preferences among the public and key decisionmakers; and disaster recovery of households, businesses and communities. Dr. Nigg also headed a multidisciplinary team that conducted a Congressionally-required public risk assessment for the proposed high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. She was also a member of the Research Committee (which set the cross-disciplinary research agendas) for the National Science Foundation’s Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research program. Dr. Nigg has been involved in several federal reviews of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and has been a member of the National Research Council's Board on Natural Disasters as well as the NRC's Committee on Earthquake Engineering. Dr. Nigg was the first woman and social scientist to serve as President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). She recently completed a term on the Division Review Committee for the Environment and Energy Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Patricia Quinlisk. MD, MPH, is a medical epidemiologist practicing at the Iowa Department of Public Health where she functions as both the Medical Director and the State Epidemiologist. Her background includes training as a clinical microbiologist (MT(ASCP)), training microbiologists while a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, a Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins (with a emphasis in infectious disease epidemiology), a medical degree from the University of Wisconsin, and training as a field epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Epidemic Intelligence Service. Yearly, for twelve years, she conducted weeklong epidemiologic training courses in Europe, and is a professor at the University of Iowa, the University of Wisconsin (La Crosse) and Iowa State University and lectures regularly at these and other educational institutions around the Midwest. She serves, or has served, on several national advisory committees including the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, the Sub-Committee for Vaccine Safety and Communication, the Advisory Committee of the U.S. Marine Corps Chemical/Biological Incident Response Force, the Department of Defense’s Panel to Assess the Capabilities for Domestic Response to Terrorist Acts Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (the Gilmore Commission), the Management Committee of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers and as President of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). She has testified before two Congressional Subcommittees on Public Health aspects of terrorism and participated on the Institute of Medicine’s Committees on Microbial Threats to Health in the 21st Century, The Psychological Consequences of Terrorism and Modeling Community Containment for Pandemic Influenza. She was also on the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Animal Health at the Crossroads, and Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She serves on the CDC’s MMWR editorial board, and is an editor for the Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal. She was recently appointed to the National Biodefense Science Board established by the Department of Health and Human Services.

David Ross, ScD, is Director of the Public Health Informatics Institute. He became the Director of All Kids Count, a program of the Institute supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), in 2000, and subsequently began the Institute, also with funding from RWJF. His experience spans the private healthcare and public health sectors. Before joining the Task Force, Dr. Ross was an executive with a private health information systems firm, a Public Health Service officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and an executive in a private health system. Dr. Ross holds a doctoral degree in Operations Research from The Johns Hopkins University (1980) where he was involved in health services research. After serving as Director of the Health Service Research Center, Baltimore USPHS Hospital, he became Vice President for Administration with the Wyman Park Health System. In 1983, he joined the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. During his career at CDC, he worked in environmental health, CDC’s executive administration, and public health practice. Dr. Ross was founding director of the Information Network for Public Health Officials (INPHO), CDC’s national initiative to improve the information infrastructure of public health. Currently, Dr. Ross also serves as a commissioner on the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), the national certifying body for electronic health record systems.