Speakers and Presentations

Speaker bios and presentation pdfs (if available) are listed below. To download all the speaker bios as a pdf, click here.

 

Secretary Thomas Vilsack

 

Tom Vilsack was sworn in as the 30^th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in January 2009. Secretary Vilsack has served in the public sector at nearly every level of government, as mayor of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, as an Iowa state senator, and then as two-term Governor of Iowa.

As Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack has been candid about the challenges and opportunities facing the USDA, and the importance of fulfilling the vast missions of the department as a champion of rural America, a steward of the environment and a protector of our food supply. Under Secretary Vilsack’s leadership, USDA is working to promote a safe and nutritious food supply for all Americans and to end child hunger by 2015. Already, the department has implemented an increase in SNAP, its main food assistance program, to benefit families in need. And for the first time ever, USDA is providing healthy fruits and vegetables to women and their infant children to encourage nutritious eating, combat the obesity epidemic, and prevent health problems down the road.

A native of Pittsburgh, Secretary Vilsack was born into an orphanage and adopted in 1951. He received a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, earned his law degree from Albany Law School and practiced law before entering public service.

Throughout his public service, Tom Vilsack has pursued an agenda dedicated to the principles of opportunity, responsibility, and security. He is recognized as an innovator on children’s issues and education, economic and healthcare policy, and efforts to make government more efficient and accessible. Iowa is known for its strong K-12 education system in part due to Secretary Vilsack’s initiatives. He developed aggressive early childhood programs, reduced class sizes, and created a first-in-the-nation salary initiative to improve teacher quality and student achievement. His leadership also led to Iowa becoming a national leader in health insurance coverage with more than 90% of children covered.

Kevin Concannon | presentation (pdf)

Kevin Concannon was nominated by President Obama and Secretary Vilsack and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July 2009 to serve as Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services in the United States Department of Agriculture.

In this capacity, he has principal responsibility and funding authority for the Food and Nutrition Service which feeds an estimated 20 percent of the U.S. population, as well as lead responsibility for promoting healthy eating through the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.

Working in partnership with state and local organizations, Under Secretary Concannon’s department oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, which serves over 35 million Americans each month; the National School Lunch, School Breakfast, and Summer Food Service Programs; the Child and Adult Care Food Program; and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Under Secretary Concannon has had a lengthy and distinguished career in public service, having served as Director of State Health and Human Services departments in Maine, Oregon, and Iowa.  He has championed expanded services, improved access, alternatives to institutions, consumer choices, affordable health care, diversity in workplace and programs, and modernization of public information technology systems.

He has served in a number of national organizations, including as President of the American Public Welfare Association and President of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.  He has received a number of awards, including the Lifetime Human Services Award from the American Public Human Services Association in 2007.

A native of Portland, Maine, Under Secretary Concannon holds a master’s degree in social work from Saint Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. He has taught graduate courses at the University Connecticut, Portland State University in Oregon, and the University of Iowa.

Aguida Atkinson, MD | presentation (pdf)

Dr. Atkinson was born and educated in Brazil and established a private practice there before moving to the U.S. in 1983. She served her pediatric residency at Christiana Care in Delaware and has worked for Nemours since 1993 as a primary care pediatrician.  Dr. Atkinson is a preceptor for the pediatric residency program of Thomas Jefferson University and the duPont Hospital for Children and has been a preceptor for Jefferson Medical College students since 1996.

Dr. Atkinson’s areas of interest include community-based health promotion, patient and family education, and early literacy. She is an active member of the Medical Society of Delaware, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and has served as a member of the executive committee for the Delaware chapter of the AAP. She founded Dr. Atkinson’s Book Club for her patients, and was pivotal in establishing the Reach Out and Read Program in seven Nemours primary care practices in Delaware.

Sara Benjamin, PhD, MPH, RD | presentation (pdf)

Dr. Sara Benjamin is a research fellow in the Obesity Prevention Program in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  Her current research focuses on policy and environmental approaches to obesity prevention in early childhood.

Dr. Benjamin’s current projects include a state-by-state comparison of regulations related to healthy eating and physical actvitiy for child care facilities.  She has published a series of papers summarizing these results and is now providing consultation to states planning to improve their state regulations.

Prior to joining Harvard, Dr. Benjamin helped develop and test a novel nutrition and physical activity intervention to promote healthy weight among children in child care.  Since that time, she has provided training and consultation to more than 250 health professionals in 15 states implementing nutrition and physical activity interventions for preschool-aged children.

David Bowman, MPA, MPH | presentation (pdf)

David Bowman serves as the Director, Community Nutrition Programs within the Delaware State Department of Education.  This includes fiscal and administrative  responsibility for the operation of the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program which is ranked 6^th nationally in the latest FRAC Report.   David also coordinates the developmenmt and delivery of nutrition education to child care and summer nutrition program partners throughtout the state.  Prior to coming to Delaware David  worked for the New Jersey State Department of Education as a manager of child nutriton programs. 

Kumar Chandran, MS, MPH | presentation (pdf)

Kumar Chandran is a Nutrition Policy Advocate with California Food Policy Advocates.  His work focuses mainly on advocating for policies to improve and expand the federal nutrition programs for low-income people in California, ensuring that they not only have enough to eat but that those foods are healthy and nutritious.  Kumar’s work concentrates on the child nutrition programs, such as school lunch and breakfast as well as child care nutrition.  Prior to joining CFPA, Kumar was pursuing graduate studies in public health and nutrition policy at Tufts University.

Debbie Chang, MPH | presentation (pdf)

Debbie Chang is Vice President of Policy and Prevention for Nemours, one of the nation’s leading children’s health systems.  In this position, she is focused on developing and achieving Nemours’ policy and advocacy goals by promoting model practices such as innovation in child health promotion and disease prevention, and Nemours’ integrated system of care. Debbie also leads a collaborative learning effort with eight communities across the country to harness and promote innovative policies and practices to improve the health and well-being of children using place-based approaches.  During the last five years at Nemours, Debbie has created and led Nemours Health & Prevention Services, an operating division in Delaware devoted to improving children’s health over time through a cross-sector, community-based model.

Debbie has more than 22 years of federal and state government and private sector experience in the health field.  She has worked on a range of key health programs and issues including Medicaid, SCHIP, Maternal and Child Health, national health care reform and financing coverage for the uninsured.  Debbie is active on a number of boards including Grantmakers in Health, Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership, and the National Institute for Children’s Healthcare Quality Policy Advisory and Obesity Advisory Committees.

Debbie is an engineering graduate of MIT and earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan. She is a senior associate in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University.

William Dietz, MD, PhD

Dr. Dietz is the Director of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity in the Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to his appointment at CDC, he was Professor of Pediatrics at the Tufts University School of Medicine, and Director of Clinical Nutrition at the Floating Hospital of New England Medical Center.  He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and earned his MD from the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from MIT. Dr. Deitz is a past president of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and a past president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and in 2002 he was made an honorary member of the American Dietetic Association, and received the Holroyd-Sherry award for his outstanding contributions to the field of children, adolescents and the media.  

Barbara Hamilton, MA | presentation (pdf)

Barbara Hamilton is Assistant Director of the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education  housed at the University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing, and funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Barbara is coordinating the expert contributions and editing the third edition of Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Standards: Guidelines for Out-of-Home Child Care Programs.

Barbara earned her master’s degree in library and information sciences from the University of Denver. She provides information and resources to those advocating for healthier and safer child care programs, such as child care providers, early education teachers, health care professionals, parents, state licensing professionals and national/state policy makers.

Geraldine Henchy, MPH, RD | presentation (pdf)

Geraldine Henchy is the Director of Nutrition Policy at the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC).  FRAC is a research, policy, public education, and advocacy center working for more effective public and private policies to eradicate domestic hunger, and improve the health and nutrition of low-income individuals and families.  Ms. Henchy’s work includes a focus on maximizing the value of the federal food programs in obesity prevention efforts. 

Ms. Henchy works on nutrition policy issues in the Child Nutrition, WIC and SNAP (formerly the Food Stamp) programs. She currently serves on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Management Improvement Task Force and she did serve as the consumer member on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Advisory Board.

Kayla Kirsch | presentation (pdf)

Kayla Kirsch, president of LEAPFROG CONSULTING, has spent over 20 years working with non-profit organizations, particularly healthcare, environmental, and educational groups. She often works as a process designer and facilitator, assisting in strategic planning and communication, collaborative direction-setting, and staff/board development.

Amy Meinen, MPH, RD | presentation (pdf)

Amy Meinen is the Nutrition Coordinator/State Fruit and Vegetable Coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Prevention Program.  A registered dietitian, Amy also holds a master’s degree in public health with an emphasis in public health nutrition from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. In her current position with the CDC-funded Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Program, Amy’s responsibilities include coordinating statewide nutrition efforts to prevent overweight and obesity; providing technical assistance to local coalitions, organizations, and partners on obesity prevention planning; and coordinating and disseminating evidence-based nutrition interventions, education, and resource materials statewide. Prior to her position with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, she worked as a pediatric nutritionist for the Ho-Chunk Nation Health Department’s Youth Fitness Program, a pediatric weight management program for clinically overweight Native American children and their families.

Shannon Rudisill | presentation (pdf)

Shannon Rudisill is Associate Director of the Child Care Bureau in the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The Child Care Bureau administers the Child Care and Development Fund, which provides over $5 billion each year in grants to States, Territories, and Tribes.  The CCDF subsidizes child care for approximately 1.7 million children each month and funds a wide variety of initiatives to improve the quality of child care for all children.

From 2000 to 2007, Shannon served as Director of the Division of Technical Assistance in the Child Care Bureau.  During her tenure, she initiated new projects for the bureau in the areas of infant and toddler care, the social and emotional development of young children, and school readiness.  In addition, she built bridges between the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) early childhood programs and programs at the Department of Education.  Prior to that, she was Special Assistant to ACF Assistant Secretary and worked extensively on the Clinton Administration’s child care initiative.  She is a graduate of Duke University and has a Master of Social Work degree from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Lynn Silver, MD, MPH | presentation (pdf)

Dr. Lynn Silver is Assistant Commissioner for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She coordinates the Department’s response to obesity and chronic disease and in that capacity led New York policy initiatives such as the trans fat ban, calorie labeling in chain restaurants, day care nutrition and physical activity regulations, and helped develop the city’s food procurement guidelines.  The chronic disease team has recently launched “Are You Pouring on the Pounds?”, a sugar and sweetened beverage counter-advertising campaign as well as a national initiative to reduce salt in processed and restaurant foods.  Dr. Silver also initiated the joint built environment collaboration between the Department and the American Institute of Architects, called FIT-CITY.

Dr. Silver was previously Visiting Scholar of International Health at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and is Associate Professor and former Director of the School of Health Sciences of the University of Brasilia. She has worked internationally on health policy issues as well as food and drug regulation as a researcher and with the consumer movement.  She received her MD and MPH degrees and pediatric training from the Johns Hopkins University and Hospital.  Her work received the Rockefeller Foundation’s International Award for Health Research in 2000.

Mary Story, PhD, RD

Mary Story is a Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, Associate Dean for Students in the School of Public Health and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. She is director of the National Program Office for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research program that supports research in environmental and policy strategies to promote healthy eating among children.

Dr. Story’s PhD is in nutrition science and her interests are in the area of child and adolescent nutrition, and childhood obesity prevention. Dr. Story has conducted several school and community-based obesity prevention studies and has published extensively in the child nutrition and obesity prevention literature. Dr. Story serves on the Institute of Medicine standing committee for childhood obesity prevention.

Jeff Sunderlin | presentation (pdf)

Jeff Sunderlin currently serves as a Program Manager with the YMCA-USA Healthier Communities Initiative – Statewide Pioneering Healthier Communities.  Prior to this position, Jeff served as a Public Health Administrator in the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, with the Illinois Department of Public Health for 18 years. Before entering state government service, Jeff was the Director of Sports Medicine, Cardiac Rehabilitation and Adult Fitness at Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois and held a concurrent position as Head Athletic Trainer at Bradley University.

Jeff received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Illinois State University in the School of Kinesiology and Recreation.  With more than 35 years of experience in the fields of exercise science, sports medicine, cardiac rehabilitation and exercise and sports marketing, Jeff has served on a variety of local, state and national task forces and committees specific to these fields.  Notably, he served as a state liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nutrition and Physical Activity Workgroup; as a steering committee member of the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity; and as a member of the External Advisory Committee for the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children.

Joseph Thompson, MD, MPH

Dr. Thompson’s work is at the intersection of clinical care, public health and health policy. He is responsible for developing health policy, research activities and collaborative programs that promote better health and health care in Arkansas, working closely with the Governor’s office, the Arkansas legislature and public and private organizations across the state on health policy topics. Nationally, as Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity, he is leading a partnership with PolicyLink that serves as the linchpin of RWJF’s strategy to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.

Dr. Thompson has led vanguard efforts in planning and implementing health care financing reform, tobacco- and obesity-related health promotion and disease prevention programs.   He was the lead architect of the Tobacco Settlement Act of 2000, and at the forefront of Arkansas’ nation-leading efforts against childhood obesity.

Dr. Thompson earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and his master’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as the RWJF Clinical Scholar at UNC Chapel Hill and as the First Child and Adolescent Health Scholar of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Ann Wick | presentation (pdf)

Ann Wick has served as the Chairman of the Delaware Early Childhood Council since its formation in 2002.  Her current work is a natural extension of a lifetime of volunteer positions focused on children and education.  Her specific interest in early childhood began in 1992 when she became a Board member of St. Michael’s School and Nursery in Wilmington, Delaware, one of the 20 oldest child care centers in the country.  Currently Ann chairs the United Way of Delaware’s Success By Six Committee and serves as a member of the Delaware Stars for Early Success management committee. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a University of Delaware Medal of Distinction, a Governor’s Outstanding Community and Civic Volunteer award, and the Delaware Association for the Education of Young Children Jane Davidson Leadership Award.