Naya Villarreal, MPH, is the Gillings Global Health Associate Director in Research, Innovation and Global Solutions at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.  The Global Health Solutions unit promotes and advances the Gillings School’s global activities in research, service, practice and teaching through partnerships, internships, outreach and communications. Ms. Villarreal manages schoolwide global health programming, including global fellowships, internships, travel awards, and international student support. She develops and maintains the Global Health Solutions communication's strategy and website. Ms. Villarreal also advises students and student groups, and promotes the Gillings School's global health activities on campus and with our partners.

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Ms. Villarreal currently serves as the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Campus Representative for UNC-Chapel Hill and is a member their Global Health Program Advisory Service. She is a member of the Triangle Global Health Consortium.

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Prior to joining the Gillings School, Ms. Villarreal worked at Martha Eliot Health Center in Boston, MA, and served as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  Ms. Villarreal earned a BA in political science from the University of California-Los Angeles and a MPH in international health, specializing in program management, from Boston University School of Public Health.

Global health, public health, professional development

Originally from Kenya, Florence is a passionate public health professional with over eight years’ experience working in developed and developing country settings. She has special interest in promoting community and policy makers’ involvement, public-private partnerships, and local systems capacity building in finding and embracing evidence-based approaches to improve programs and community based service delivery to vulnerable populations – particularly women/girls and children.

Florence holds a Masters degree in Public Health with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health and certification in global health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist, a member of the Program Committee for the Triangle Global Health Consortium, and a member of CORE Group’s Social Behavior Change Working Group. She is currently a Senior Technical Advisor, Community Engagement at Ipas. Prior to recently joining Ipas, she was the Program Manager for Africa at Curamericas Global. During her free time, Florence enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, cooking, volunteering, Zumba, doting on her children, nephews and nieces, and motivating others.

Health communication, health advocacy, public health, maternal and child health

Executive Director of the Global Healthcare Innovation Alliance Accelerator,
​Julie is also a Senior Consultant to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI), Consultant and lecturer at the Duke Law School Access to Medicines course; Board Member, Medical University of South Carolina Foundation for Research and Development, and has been a Consultant to the WHO. She is also a Collaborator with Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Global Action in Action initiative.
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She was formerly a Visiting Associate Professor of the Practice at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, and Director of the Sanford Innovation, Technology, Policy project.
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Julie is a lawyer, business development executive, speaker and Certified Licensing Professional. She was formerly an attorney and Director of Business Development at Glaxo Wellcome (now GSK) and has consulted for BioMatch, LLC for many years. She has decades of experience negotiating IP licenses, alliance agreements and advising companies, nonprofits and other institutions on partnering, IP and development strategies. 

Alliance and partnership management, technology licensing

Dr. Julie Casani is the Director and Medical Director of Student Health Services at NC State University where she oversees the delivery of primary care, women’s services, physical therapy, nutrition services and pharmacy to students, faculty and staff. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Biological Sciences where she instructs in Global Public Health, Agriculture Security and One Health and mentors pre-health students.

Until June of 2017, she was the Director of Public Health Preparedness and Response in the North Carolina Division of Public Health. From 1999-2006, she was the Preparedness Director at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She has been a policy and health practice consultant to several national workshops and committees in Weapons of Mass Destruction for Federal and State agencies, serving on multiple Defense Science Boards.  She also served three consecutive terms as a member of the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee for DHS. She recently co-authored the text: Disasters and Public Health: Planning and Response.

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Dr. Casani practiced clinical Emergency Medicine in the Johns Hopkins system for 17 years. She has been actively involved in Emergency Medical Services since the 1970’s serving at every level from ambulance provider to an appointed member of the Maryland State EMS Board. Dr. Casani received her Medical Degree from New York University School of Medicine and her Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Disaster preparedness and prevention, public health, health research, health education, health policy, biodefense, infectious disease

Brian Cooper is the Chief of Staff for Bluedoor and the Director of Grant Development at the Digital Health Institute for Transformation (DHIT). With a career spanning from academic medical centers to oversight of government programs, Brian is a seasoned leader of statewide initiatives with a particular emphasis on telehealth programs. Brian is an advocate for rural and underserved communities and he is passionate about the use of digital health to impact access to care, clinical pathways, wellness, and the human condition.

Brian's previous roles have involved operational program management, strategic planning, performance improvement, partnership development, grant funding, and execution of complex workplans. His work with the North Carolina Statewide Telepsychiatry Program and the North Carolina Flex Program has achieved national attention from the White House Rural Council, the National Governors Association (NGA), the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). Brian’s previous roles at UNC Health Care, Duke Health, Ciox Health, and the North Carolina Office of Rural Health have established him as a telehealth subject matter expert and thought leader. He regularly serves in an advisory role to organizations wishing to redesign healthcare delivery, including the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center, the North Carolina Healthcare Information & Communications Alliance (NCHICA), and the North Carolina Rural Health Leadership Alliance, where he serves as Co-Chair of the Telehealth Delivery Taskforce.

Public health, rural health, telemedicine, mental health, health communication, digital health

Paul Domanico, PhD is an executive with over 30 yrs of life sciences R&D experience. He leads large international & multidisciplinary teams through all phases of drug discovery, drug development, and technology development. He has extensive knowledge of drug discovery, chemistry, biology, pharmacology, clinical sciences, and information technology. He served on the boards of biotechnology companies and serves as a mentor to several NC schools and firms.

Paul is the Senior Director of Global Health Sciences at CHAI. This group develops and transfer better and less expensive process chemistries for manufacturing; ensures key products meet quality standards; supports the development and regulatory filing of critical products and dose-optimized regimens; provide clinical guidance on disease prevention and management, support the timely transition to optimal treatment paradigms and improving quality of clinical service delivery for patients in resource-limited settings; and confirm the benefits and cost-effectiveness of interventions; model expected health outcomes and costs of public health programs; and accelerate the real-world implementation of highly-effective interventions.

From 2007-2012, He was a Managing Partner at Innovalyst, a life sciences consulting company that catalyzes product development and commercialization in diagnostics & devices, drug discovery and development, and life science informatics. He created and led Innovalyst’s business development and operations strategy, and grew the corporation into a multi-million dollar international enterprise.

From 2001-2007, Paul was the VP of Technology Development at GSK, he delivered advanced technologies, assessed new investment opportunities for GSK’s Technology Investment Board, and designed future scenarios for the pharmaceutical industry. Paul created the industry’s first technology accelerator for early-stage companies that combined GSK’s formidable expertise and infrastructure with external investment.

Global health research, bio-pharma management, life science research, drug development and manufacturing, executive management, health advocacy

Dr. Elam is President and CEO of Galaxy Diagnostics. She co-founded Galaxy Diagnostics in 2009 and continues to lead corporate strategy and business development activities. Dr. Elam is an entrepreneur and scholar with experience in life sciences and information technology markets. In addition to her leadership role at Galaxy Diagnostics, she holds a Diana Research Fellowship at Babson College where she conducts sponsored research studies for the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (CWEL). Dr. Elam holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has published extensively on the topic of business start-up and growth in top journals and global research reports. Her doctoral research on entrepreneurship was recognized by the Academy of Management for innovative thought leadership. Galaxy Diagnostics represents Dr. Elam’s first foray into the life sciences industry. As a highly regulated and complex industry, the life sciences provide countless illustrations of the barriers to innovation in healthcare and medicine. The challenges for entrepreneurs and business leaders today include finding better ways to build flexible, efficient organizations and processes to facilitate market innovation.

Entrepreneurship, Innovation Management, Marketing/Business Development

Morgan Garcia is a clinical research manager at FHI 360, supporting the NIH-funded Microbicide Trials Network, with a focus on the dapivirine vaginal ring for HIV prevention. Morgan also provides technical support to the OPTIONS Consortium, a USAID partnership to expedite and sustain access to antiretroviral-based HIV prevention products in East and Southern Africa.

Morgan began her global health career working with HIV-positive women and families displaced by civil war in Northern Uganda. During graduate school, Morgan worked with Partners In Health in rural Peru, scaling up a TB response and treatment program. She later served as a Sexual Assault Response Advocate in Oregon, expanding support for Spanish-speaking survivors and building relationships with local hospitals, relief organizations, and clinical service providers.

Morgan then joined The Carter Center’s South Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program, where she supervised surveillance and containment teams from her remote field station. She later returned to Uganda to work on supporting the health and rights of women and girls, including consulting with Raising Voices, an organization that prevents violence against women and children. Before joining FHI 360, Morgan managed CARE International’s Sexual, Reproductive, and Maternal Health Program in Papua New Guinea, where she designed and implemented a rights-based approach to sexual and reproductive health in remote farming communities and urban, post-conflict youth.

Morgan is passionate about reaching the world’s most vulnerable communities with the resources they need to thrive. She is committed to spreading understanding and support for survivors of violence, and is always eager to learn more from the world around her.

Global health, public health, health research, program management, clinical research, health advocacy, health communication

Andrew Herrera, MPH, MBA is Executive Director of Triangle-based Curamericas. Before joining Curamericas Global in 2009, Andrew served with the City of Raleigh Parks and Recreation for four years and spent a year studying in Ecuador. In 2004 Andrew was a State Department Ambassador to Jiaonan, China through the American Field Service. He has a B.A. in Hispanic Studies and Religious Studies from East Carolina University and an MPH from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health in Public Health Leadership and a concentration in Field Epidemiology (August 2017). He has recently finished his MBA (June 2019) at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Traveling each week for classes at Booth allowed Andrew to expand Curamericas Global’s network, apply in-class learning immediately to Curamericas programs and exchange principles of Curamericas with colleagues in the for-profit sector.  As Executive Director of Curamericas Global since December 2013, Andrew has been responsible for leading strategic initiatives, development of the Board of Directors and the day-to-day operations of an international Nongovernmental Organization.

Nonprofit management, Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition and Food Security

Dr. Laura Hoemeke has more than 25 years of experience in global health leadership, advocacy, communications, and program design and management, including 15 years of residence in Francophone Africa and short-term assignments throughout East, West, and Central Africa. She is currently an independent consultant, a senior consultant with Clear Outcomes, and an adjunct professor at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. Laura has significant experience in health policy development and analysis, program design and management, advocacy and communications. She is an internationally recognized and invited public speaker, trainer, and facilitator. She has technical expertise in family planning, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and malaria control, as well as good governance, decentralization, health financing, and community health. At IntraHealth International, starting in 2003, Laura served as the Regional Director for West and Central Africa based in Dakar, Senegal, overseeing country programs and successfully launching several new programs in the region. She then moved to Kigali, Rwanda, where she served as Director and Chief of Party of the Twubakane Decentralization and Health Program. At IntraHealth’s headquarters in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Laura served as the director of communications and advocacy, helping to grow IntraHealth’s advocacy unit.

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Laura has a doctorate in health policy and management from UNC’s Gillings Global School of Public Health and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Laura completed her undergraduate studies at Northwestern University, where she received a BS in journalism with from the Medill School of Journalism. Laura is professionally fluent in French and Sango (the national language of the Central African Republic).

Global health, health communication, health advocacy, consultant, program management, Chief of Party

Bobby Jefferson, Chief Technology Officer with DAI Global Health, focuses on tech-enabled services for global health programs. Bobby has a relentless entrepreneurial passion for using mobile solutions for social development and community health. He serves as tech reviewer and judge on early stage health tech funds, Innovation to Action Challenge, Human Development Innovation, GHIC Innovation Prize, Aetna Foundation Prizes for Health Equity Innovation Advisory Board and mentors health tech startups. He was speaker at the 2018 Switchpoint Conference in Saxapahaw, NC. Bobby collaborates with incubator networks in Raleigh-Durham to support social entrepreneurs’ brilliant ideas and innovations in healthcare

Health research, health data and analytics, health innovation, public health, global health

An infectious disease epidemiologist with over 18 years of experience in development and implementation of epidemiologic, biosurveillance, and clinical research studies in international settings including South Asia, South America, West Africa, and East Africa. Expertise in assessing the epidemiology, clinical pathology, and disease risk factors for various endemic and emerging infectious diseases. Scientific technical lead on epidemiologic studies related to emerging diseases, including Lassa Fever, brucellosis, Rift Valley Fever, and Ebola, to characterize the morbidity, mortality and risk factors associated with disease and clinical outcome utilizing a One Health Epidemiology approach. Serve as a scientific mentor to international scientists in BTRIC countries, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, to provide feedback on research projects, and assist in the development of manuscripts for publication. Scientific development and implementation of Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials for malaria vaccine challenge trials, H1N1 influenza vaccine trial, and Zika vaccine trial. Expertise in assessing the epidemiology, immuno-epidemiology, and pathology of malaria in various endemicity settings. Experience in clinical development during the translational phase from pre-clinical studies through to implementation of Phase 1/2 vaccine clinical trials. Experience in managing all

aspects of clinical trials related to infectious diseases including pre-clinical toxicology studies, cGMP manufacturing, IND submission, clinical study design and protocol development, ICF and CRF development, IRB submissions, clinical trial conduct, immunological analysis, database development, statistical analysis, interpretation of results, and manuscript preparation. Strong program management skills with over 15 years of experience in leading international, multidisciplinary teams.

https://epipointe.com/about/

Sarah Rhea is an infectious disease epidemiologist and veterinarian at RTI. Following her tenure as a practicing veterinarian, Dr. Rhea conducted graduate work in vector-borne and zoonotic diseases. As an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer with CDC, she investigated numerous infectious disease clusters and outbreaks in collaboration with local, state, and federal partners. Dr. Rhea conducted public health preparedness and response activities related to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Ebola. During her CDC Preventive Medicine Fellowship, she assessed the role of local health departments in HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) delivery and led program development and evaluation for hepatitis C testing and linkage-to-care activities in NC.

At RTI, Dr. Rhea serves as Principal Investigator for the CDC-funded NC Modeling Infectious Diseases (NC MInD) Network, conducting healthcare-associated infection transmission modeling research with a focus on antimicrobial resistant pathogens. She serves as Associate Director for an NIH-funded project to mitigate infectious disease outcomes associated with the injection drug use in Appalachia. Dr. Rhea provides expertise in surveillance system evaluation for the CDC Global Health Security Partner Engagement project in Guinea and supports epidemiologic and veterinary activities for a pilot project to validate molecular markers for surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in Nepal.

Animal health, environmental health, health research, health policy, infectious disease, epidemiology, public health

Tate Rogers founded the Triangle Environmental Health Initiative (Tri-EHI) in 2016 with a mission to provide water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) based solutions to developing areas. Mr. Rogers began his WASH work through a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant received in his undergrad senior design course at North Carolina State University (NCSU). This work was for a novel sanitation system for emptying pits in developing countries, which he continued working on through his MS degree, also at NCSU. From there he worked on several other WASH projects including the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge originally funded at RTI International and now at Duke University. In 2016, he decided to start Tri-EHI to promote collaboration between the several Research Triangle based institutions working in the WASH sector including NCSU, RTI International, Duke University, and Biomass Controls. Tri-EHI is designed to bridge the gap between R&D, field testing, and market infiltration for these local and other global institutions. Mr. Rogers spends a lot of time internationally and has been involved in the field deployment and testing of prototypes with ongoing work in South Africa, Malawi, Rwanda, Kenya, and India.

Environmental health, WASH (water and sanitary health), engineering, project management, entrepreneurship

Kimberly Thigpen Tart, JD, MPH is a Health Science Policy Analyst in the Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the former News Editor of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. She is a member of the NIEHS Global Environmental Health/WHO Collaborating Centre on Environmental Health Sciences Steering Committee. She is a founding member of the USGCRP Climate Change and Human Health Working Group, and a member of the Steering Committee and a contributing author to the 2016 USGCRP report on the Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States. She serves on the Senior Staff Steering Committee of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children and the NIH Prevention Research Coordinating Committee. She serves as an NIEHS liaison to the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for the Standing Committee on Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions and Environmental Health Matters Initiative, as well as the Triangle Global Health Consortium and the Research Triangle Environmental Health Collaborative.

Kimberly received her B.A. with Honors in journalism and her J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her Master of Public Health Leadership from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Environmental health, health policy, health research, health advocacy, health communication

Katherine L. Turner, MPH is Founder and President of Global Citizen, LLC, a consulting firm that works in the United States and internationally to strengthen leaders’ capacity to advance public health, human rights, global competence, equity, diversity, and inclusion and effect organizational and social transformation for a better world. As Adjunct Faculty at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, she teaches and mentors the next generation of leaders. Katherine is a renowned organizational and community thought leader, senior global advisor, public speaker, educator, author, and change agent who has worked in English, French, and Dutch in more than 50 countries spanning five continents.

Global Citizen, LLC works in partnership with a diverse network of dynamic consultants and interns and collaborates with nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, K-12 school systems, funding agencies, health institutions, governments, corporations, and other client partners to conduct strategic visioning, strengthen capacity, and deliver mission- and values-driven, high-impact results.

Katherine has founded and led the board of directors of nonprofit organizations, provides strategic direction on global advisory committees, and has won numerous awards for excellence in leadership and advocacy. She has lived on both coasts of the United States and in London, Paris, the Netherlands, and Togo. She and her family are proud to call Durham, NC their home.

Public health, health advocacy, health community, consultant, entrepreneur, health research

Gretchen Van Vliet, MPH is a Senior Public Health Project Director at RTI International with more than 20 years of experience in public health and global health. She has worked at two international NGOs in North Carolina: FHI 360 and RTI International. She works on projects related to business development, global health security in Africa, HIV, workforce development and health communication. She also previously served as the director of the Office of Global Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and currently holds an adjunct assistant professor position in the Public Health Leadership Program at the Gillings School.  

Public health, health research, health policy, health communication

Kathy Walmer is the Executive Director for Family Health Ministries (FHM) and an Adjunct Instructor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing. She has a passion for non-profit research, service, and education in global health. Using her background as a nurse practitioner and educator, Kathy guides an active volunteer board and over 60 US and Haitian employees. 

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Kathy's diverse background includes working as nurse practitioner with children from premature infants to adolescents, and experience overseeing both government and industry-sponsored research. In 2003, Kathy's skills in maternal and child health came together.  She became the Executive Director for Family Health Ministries, focusing on the health and education of women and children in low resource communities.

Nonprofit management, philanthropy, public health, faith-based organizations, nursing, health education, health research, clinical management

Stephanie Watson-Grant, DrPH, has 17 years of experience in public health and development, with 14 years of which is working with organizations at the country level. Dr. Watson-Grant held positions in USAID and UNAIDS and has extensive experience in a diverse portfolio of work including routine monitoring with mHealth resources, outcome monitoring surveys, outcome evaluations, evaluation capacity building, causal loop mapping to assess risks to task shifting from facilities to communities and has publications focused on measurement of country ownership in global health.

In her most recent position, she serves as the Director of Field Operations for MEASURE Evaluation where she leads a team of four country portfolio managers who provide oversight to 36 country operations, implementing activities related to more than eight different earmarks.

Measurement and evaluation, health policy, health research, public health, health data and analytics

An infectious disease epidemiologist with over 18 years of experience in development and implementation of epidemiologic, biosurveillance, and clinical research studies in international settings including South Asia, South America, West Africa, and East Africa. Expertise in assessing the epidemiology, clinical pathology, and disease risk factors for various endemic and emerging infectious diseases. Scientific technical lead on epidemiologic studies related to emerging diseases, including Lassa Fever, brucellosis, Rift Valley Fever, and Ebola, to characterize the morbidity, mortality and risk factors associated with disease and clinical outcome utilizing a One Health Epidemiology approach. Serve as a scientific mentor to international scientists in BTRIC countries, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, to provide feedback on research projects, and assist in the development of manuscripts for publication. Scientific development and implementation of Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials for malaria vaccine challenge trials, H1N1 influenza vaccine trial, and Zika vaccine trial. Expertise in assessing the epidemiology, immuno-epidemiology, and pathology of malaria in various endemicity settings. Experience in clinical development during the translational phase from pre-clinical studies through to implementation of Phase 1/2 vaccine clinical trials. Experience in managing all

aspects of clinical trials related to infectious diseases including pre-clinical toxicology studies, cGMP manufacturing, IND submission, clinical study design and protocol development, ICF and CRF development, IRB submissions, clinical trial conduct, immunological analysis, database development, statistical analysis, interpretation of results, and manuscript preparation. Strong program management skills with over 15 years of experience in leading international, multidisciplinary teams.

Clinical research, global health, epidemiology, biosurveillance, health research, emerging disease, infectious disdease