PHSR CyberSeminar: Regionalizing Public Health Systems

 Speaker Bios 

Harold Cox, M.S.S.W., Moderator

Harold Cox is the Associate Dean for Public Health Practice at the Boston University School of Public Health. Prior to joining Boston University, Harold served at Chief Public Health Officer for Cambridge, MA., where he was responsible for managing all aspects of the city's health department. Trained as a social worker at University of Texas at Austin, Harold has more than 25 years of experience in direct service, administration, and advocacy in a variety of health care settings. Harold has testified before the US House of Representatives on AIDS funding, and before the Massachusetts Legislature on various topics including asthma, AIDS, and public health statewide infrastructure. He is the past president of Massachusetts Public Health Association, and past president Multicultural AIDS Coalition. He is a member of Massachusetts Commission on Health Disparities, and the Delta Dental's Oral Health Foundation.

Harold is the recipient of the American Public Health Association's Milton and Ruth Roemer Prize for Creative Local Public Health, the Rebecca Lee award for outstanding commitment to public health from the Massachusetts Dept of Public Health, and the Hilliard award for outstanding achievement form Massachusetts Health Officers Association.  

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D. Patrick Lenihan, Ph.D.

Patrick Lenihan is Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and former Deputy Health Commissioner for the City of Chicago. He also currently serves as the Executive Director of the Northern Illinois Public Health Consortium. Dr. Lenihan has worked for over 25 years in non-profit and public sector health related organizations where he has directed planning, emergency preparedness, research, information systems, and analysis of regional and local health issues. He specializes in assisting organizations make and implement sustainable strategic decisions and has been a consultant to a variety of organizations including: health care providers, academic institutions, non-profit and government agencies, and trade and membership associations. Dr. Lenihan holds a Ph.D. in public policy, a Master's in urban planning and a B.S. in economics, all from the University of Illinois. He has authored numerous studies and reports and is a frequent speaker and lecturer at professional meetings and area universities. Dr. Lenihan has been an active member and officer in several professional associations, is the past-president of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and a former chair of the American Public Health Association (APHA) Community Health Planning and Policy Development Section. He regularly serves on civic, social service, academic and governmental advisory bodies.

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Dave Palm, Ph.D.

Dave Palm has over 30 years of experience in working on various health planning and policy issues for the Nebraska Department of Health. Since 2000, he has been the Administrator of the Office of Public Health in the Nebraska Health and Human Services System. The Office of Public Health is responsible for providing technical assistance to the local public health departments in areas such as needs assessment, priority setting, intervention strategies, and evaluation. The Office also manages several contracts with local public health agencies, including basic infrastructure funding, emergency preparedness, and pandemic flu. In addition, his office manages the Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant, the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant, as well as several substance abuse prevention programs such as the State Incentive Cooperative Agreement (SICA), the Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG), and the Governor's portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities.

Dave received a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Wyoming; and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has taught a class in health economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for over 20 years.

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Michael A. Stoto, Ph.D.

Michael A. Stoto is a Professor of Health Systems Administration and Population Health at Georgetown University. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health. An epidemiologist, statistician, and health policy analyst, Dr. Stoto previously served on the faculty of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, and the RAND Graduate School. Before coming to Georgetown on a full-time basis in August 2006, Dr. Stoto was a Senior Statistician at the RAND Corporation and the Associate Director for Public Health in the Center for Domestic and International Health Security. From 1987 to 1998 he was a professional staff member at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), where served as director of the Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and led numerous projects in public health practice. Dr. Stoto received an AB from Princeton University and a PhD from Harvard University, both in Statistics.

Dr. Stoto has extensive experience in the development of statistical and epidemiological methods and their application to guide public health policy formation and public health practice. His research experience includes methodological topics in epidemiology, statistics, and demography, research synthesis/meta-analysis, community health assessment, risk analysis and communication, and performance measurement, as well as substantive topics in public health and infectious disease policy and other aspects of public health practice. He has extensive experience using quantitative and qualitative methods in public health surveillance; case studies of public health practice, especially with regard to preparedness; the evaluation of public health interventions, community health assessment, confidentiality in health information systems, and other issues. Dr. Stoto is currently leading the Evaluation core for the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness. He has worked with the District of Columbia Department of Health to evaluate its hospital emergency room syndromic surveillance system, and has published extensively in related areas. Dr. Stoto is also leading a multi-site project investigating regional approaches to public health preparedness, through case studies in four sites.

PowerPoint Slides | PDF Handout of Slides