Dr. Andrea Amalfitano, D.O., PhD

Dean, Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine

Andrea “Andy” Amalfitano was named the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine’s fifth dean in December 2018. He is a clinical geneticist with training in pediatrics and internal medicine, as well an internationally regarded researcher in developing cutting-edge therapeutics, including enzyme and gene transfer based technologies to foster treatment of genetic and acquired human conditions such as cancer and infectious disease. Current vaccine technologies developed in the Amalfitano laboratories are currently being utilized in dozens of human clinical trials to treat a variety of solid tumors, as well as part of the “project warp speed” initiative to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

In his clinical work he has cared for infants, children and adults potentially affected by a variety of genetic conditions, including autoimmune diseases, and this work has guided additional research output from the Amalfitano laboratories. He holds the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation endowed university chair, is a professor of pediatrics, microbiology and molecular genetics and was the director of MSU’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. An MSU and MSUCOM alumnus, Amalfitano is a prolific investigator, he has been a primary or contributing author on over 100 peer-reviewed journal publications, contributed to eight book chapters, nearly 100 scientific abstracts and has served on the editorial board of more than a dozen journals in addition to roles as scientific advisor or grant reviewer, the latter inclusive of NIH study sections. He has been awarded millions of dollars in extramural funding from the US government (primarily NIH), national foundations (MDA, AMDA), and corporate sponsors.

Nicki Britten

Health Officer, Berrien County Health Department

Nicki Britten is the Health Officer at the Berrien County Health Department. She earned her Masters of Public Health with a focus on Infectious Disease Epidemiology from Yale University. Nicki has spent her career with a specific focus on creating structural level changes that address issues of trauma, resilience, racial inequities, and food access. She became a certified ACEs Master Trainer in 2017, was a fellow in the Health Equity Awakened Fellowship through Human Impact Partners in 2017, was named a 2018 Emerging Leader in Public Health by the Kresge Foundation, and has been appointed by Governor Whitmer to the Michigan Advisory Council on Environmental Justice in 2019, the Return to School Advisory Council in 2020, and the Student Recovery Council in 2021. 

 

Dr. Renée Branch Canady, PhD, MPA

Chief Executive Office (CEO) of MPHI

Dr. Renée Branch Canady serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MPHI; a unique public trust dedicated to advancing population health through public health innovation and collaboration. Prior to joining MPHI, Dr. Canady served as Health Officer and Director of Ingham County Health Department, where she led the expansion of the innovative and nationally known, Ingham County Health Equity Social Justice program.Dr. Renée Branch Canady serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MPHI; a unique public trust dedicated to advancing population health through public health innovation and collaboration. Prior to joining MPHI, Dr. Canady served as Health Officer and Director of Ingham County Health Department, where she led the expansion of the innovative and nationally known, Ingham County Health Equity Social Justice program.Dr. Canady has held faculty and leadership positions within the College of Nursing and the College of Medicine, Program for Public Health at Michigan State University where she developed a research trajectory in health disparities and continues to serve as an assistant professor in the Division of Public Health. She has been highly influential in broadening the discussion of health equity and social justice while serving on numerous national boards, review panels, and advisory groups including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) County Health Rankings Scientific Advisory Group, the National Collaborative for Health Equity Advisory Committee, and the National 10 Essential Public Health Services Task Force, whose charge is to update this foundational public health framework. Dr. Canady was appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to serve on the State of MI Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities. She earned her PhD in Medical Sociology from Michigan State University, a master’s degree in Public Administration from Western Michigan University and a bachelor’s degree in Public Health Nutrition from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Brian Castrucci, DrPH, MA

President and Chief Executive Office (CEO) of de Beaumont Foundation

Brian C. Castrucci, DrPH, is an epidemiologist, public health practitioner, and president and chief executive officer of the de Beaumont Foundation. In just under a decade, Brian helped build de Beaumont into a leading voice in health philanthropy and public health practice by creating national projects that advocate for health and social policy change, develop cross-sector partnerships, and elevate the state and local public health agency workforce. Brian has formed several multi-funder collaboratives with nearly 20 business and philanthropic partners to align and expand available resources to achieve shared goals.   

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brian co-produced a documentary, Outbreak: The First Response, chronicling the first US-based outbreak of COVID in Seattle, Washington. He also focused on message development, testing, and deployment to groups expressing concern about the COVID-19 vaccine through ChaningtheCOVIDconversation.org and for the governmental public health workforce through the newly created Public Health Communications Collaborative.

Prior to joining de Beaumont, Brian worked for a decade as an applied epidemiologist and held leadership positions at the Georgia Department of Health, Texas Department of State Health Services, and Philadelphia Department of Health. Applying what he learned in his governmental public health practice, Brian has led the Foundation to the forefront of issues such as integrating primary care and public health, assessing the governmental public health workforce, and prioritizing partnerships and policies as critical to solving our most complex health challenges.  

Brian is a sought-after resource on public health issues contributing to articles appearing in The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Associated Press, The Atlantic, and Politico, among others. He also has appeared on CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, Fox News, Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, FoxNewsNow, and several local television affiliates.

He regularly shares his unique brand of practice-based thought leadership in editorials appearing in The Washington Post, The Hill, The Baltimore Sun, CNBC, the Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, STAT, and Governing. He also has over 90 peer-reviewed publications that have earned more than 2,000 citations along with several book chapters and two edited books.

  

Brian holds a doctorate in Public Health Leadership from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Arts degree in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science with the highest distinction from North Carolina State University.

Dr. Michael Fraser, Phd, MS, CAE, FCPP

Executive Director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials

Dr. Michael Fraser serves as the Executive Director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in state‐based public health practice. Under his leadership, ASTHO has received multiple Power of “A” Awards from the American Society of Association Executives for ASTHO’s outstanding performance and the contributions the ASTHO team has made to advance the work of our members. ASTHO has grown in influence and organizational capacity since his arrival, including increasing the size and diversity of ASTHO team and grow the organization’s budget with significant new investments from both federal agencies and national and global philanthropies.

Michael is a dynamic leader in the health care and public health fields and brings to this position experience leading both public health associations and medical societies. He has been featured in interviews with the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, The Hill, CNN, Bloomberg, MSNBC, and other national and regional media outlets. Michael is a co-editor and author of A Public Health Guide to Ending the Opioid Crisis published by the Oxford University Press in early 2019 and is currently an editor and author of Leading Systems Change in Public Health: A Field Guide for Practitioners. Michael is an Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Global and Community Health and the Department of Health Administration and Policy at the George Mason University College of Health and Human Services.

Prior to joining ASTHO, he served as the executive vice president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Medical Society in Harrisburg, PA. Michael has been a distinguished leader in public health for twenty years. He served as CEO of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) from 2007 to 2013, where his leadership was recognized nationally by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Director’s Award in 2014. In addition, the American Public Health Association’s MCH Section awarded AMCHP the Outstanding Leadership and Advocacy Award. Prior to joining AMCHP, he was the deputy executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials from 2002 to 2007, and served in several capacities at the US Department of Health and Human Services, including positions at the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Spring 2015, he was admitted as a Fellow in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, one of just a handful on non-physician Fellows in the nation’s oldest professional society.

Michael received his doctorate and masters degrees in sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a masters of science in management with a concentration on management, strategy and leadership from the Eli Broad School of Management at Michigan State University. He received his B.A. in sociology from Oberlin College in 1991.

Since coming to ASTHO, Mike has crisscrossed the nation to meet with members, partners, and public health leaders to further advance ASTHO’s mission as an advocate, voice and resource for state and territorial public health.  He has served on several national boards and advisory committees throughout his career. He is the Founding Treasurer of PHPAC – the Public Health Political Action Committee, is active in the American Society of Association Executives, serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice and serves as expert review for multiple scholarly publications on public health practice.

Dr. Debra Furr-Holden

Associate Dean for Public Health Integration, C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health, and Director of the Division of Public Health at Michigan State University

Dr. Debra Furr-Holden is the Associate Dean for Public Health Integration, C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health, and Director of the Division of Public Health at Michigan State University.  She is also the Director of the Flint Center for Health Equity Solutions, funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She is an epidemiologist and classically trained public health professional with expertise in behavioral health equity and health disparities. Dr. Furr-Holden has worked extensively with a wide range of partners including community-based organizations, local municipal officials, and policy makers.  Her research has supported legislative efforts to impact state- and national-level legislation to promote behavioral health equity.  Dr. Furr-Holden’s community-based, action-oriented research has been well received by community stakeholders and driven multiple policy interventions to address some of the nation’s greatest public health challenges, especially among racial and ethnic minorities and in racially- and economically-segregated communities. Dr. Furr-Holden’s research is grounded in the rubrics of epidemiology and consistent with principles and practices for understanding social determinants of health and health equity. Dr. Furr-Holden attended the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (BA Natural Sciences and Public Health, 1996) and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (PhD, 1999).

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, MD, MPH, FACEP

Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan and Chief Deputy Director for Health in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS)

Joneigh S. Khaldun, MD, MPH, FACEP is the Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan and Chief Deputy Director for Health in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). In these roles, she provides overall medical guidance for the State of Michigan as a cabinet member of the Governor, and oversees public health and aging programs, Medicaid, and behavioral health for MDHHS. Prior to her role at MDHHS, she was the Director and Health Officer for the Detroit Health Department, where she oversaw a robust community health assessment, established a comprehensive reproductive health network, spear-headed new human service efforts, and led Detroit’s response to the largest Hepatitis A outbreak in modern U.S. history.Joneigh S. Khaldun, MD, MPH, FACEP is the Chief Medical Executive for the State of Michigan and Chief Deputy Director for Health in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). In these roles, she provides overall medical guidance for the State of Michigan as a cabinet member of the Governor, and oversees public health and aging programs, Medicaid, and behavioral health for MDHHS. Prior to her role at MDHHS, she was the Director and Health Officer for the Detroit Health Department, where she oversaw a robust community health assessment, established a comprehensive reproductive health network, spear-headed new human service efforts, and led Detroit’s response to the largest Hepatitis A outbreak in modern U.S. history.Previously, Dr. Khaldun was the Baltimore City Health Department’s Chief Medical Officer, where she led their efforts to address the opioid epidemic and expanded and modernized the department’s multiple clinical services and laboratory. She has held previous positions as the Director of the Center for Injury Prevention and Control at George Washington University, Founder and Director of the Fellowship in Health Policy in the University of Maryland Department of Emergency Medicine, and Fellow in the Obama administration’s Office of Health Reform in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She currently serves on the National Advisory Board for the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan, the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit, and on the Health and Medicine Committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the University of Michigan School of Public Health.Dr. Khaldun has received numerous awards including the 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health Award by the National Minority Quality Forum, the deBeaumont Foundation 40 Under 40 Leaders in Public Health Award, and the George Washington University Dean’s 950 Award. In 2020, she was named a Notable Woman in Health and Newsmaker of the Year by Crain’s Detroit. Dr. Khaldun obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, MPH in Health Policy from George Washington University, and completed residency in emergency medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center/Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NY, where was elected chief resident in her final year. She practices emergency medicine part time at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Dr. Paul Kuehnert, DNP, RN, FAAN

President and CEO of the Public Health Accreditation Board

Dr. Paul Kuehnert is President and CEO of PHAB, where he oversees all aspects of PHAB’s mission and work, including accreditation-related strategies, partnerships, long-range planning, PHAB’s Board of Directors, committees/think tanks, and student opportunities. Dr. Kuehnert’s career spans nearly 30 years of providing executive leadership to private and governmental organizations to build and improve systems to address complex health and human services needs. Immediately prior to joining PHAB in January 2020, Dr. Kuehnert served for seven years at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in Princeton, NJ, most recently in the role of Associate Vice President for Program.  Prior to joining RWJF in 2012, he spent five years as the County Health Officer and Executive Director for Health for Kane County, Illinois, a metro-Chicago county of 515,000 people. In that role, Dr. Kuehnert provided executive leadership and oversight to four county departments: Health, Emergency Management, Community Reinvestment and Animal Control.  Earlier, he served as Deputy State Health Officer and Deputy Director of the state of Maine’s Health Department. Dr. Kuehnert is a pediatric nurse practitioner and holds the Doctor of Nursing Practice in executive leadership as well as the Master of Science in public health nursing degrees from University of Illinois at Chicago. He was named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow in 2004, a Fellow in the National Academies of Practice in 2010, and a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2015.