Henrie M. Treadwell, Ph.D., director, Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved
 Dr. Treadwell is Senior Social Scientist and Associate Director of Development in the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine. Her major responsibilities include program oversight and management for Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved, a special informing policy initiative that is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. She also has oversight of the men’s health programs that were funded as a special cluster by the Kellogg Foundation but that are managed by the National Center for Primary Care. Her special work includes development of strategies to inform policy, working to address health disparities among underserved populations, and dissemination of various media products to inform the public and communities of health related issues. Prior to joining the National Center for Primary Care, Dr. Treadwell served for 16 years as program director at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan.
Dr. Treadwell’s educational background includes the bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of South Carolina, a master’s degree in Biology from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Atlanta University. She has also completed postdoctoral work at the Harvard University School of Public Health. Dr. Treadwell is a member of the Editorial Board for the American Journal of Public Health and the International Journal of Men’s Health and Gender; she also serves on the external advisory committee for the MPH program at Morehouse School of Medicine and is a recent inductee into the Leadership Atlanta Fellowship Class of 2006. She also serves as board member of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, the Georgia Council for International Visitors, and the High Museum of Art. Additionally, she serves as a member of several professional organizations including and the American Public Health Association, Academy Health, Women in Philanthropy, and Sigma Xi. Dr. Treadwell is also a member of several organizations dedicated to community services including Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. and The Links, Inc. |
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Kisha Braithwaite, Ph.D. Co-director, Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved
 Kisha is the Associate Director for Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Morehouse School of Medicine, which promotes excellence in community primary health care and improved access to comprehensive services, with a special focus on underserved populations and eliminating health disparities. She earned her doctorate degree from Howard University in counseling psychology, and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in the schools of medicine and public health. Dr. Braithwaite brings several years of experience as a clinician working at community mental health centers, hospitals, and psychiatric treatment facilities; and she has conducted community-based research focused on mental health disparities, depression among women, HIV/AIDS and young populations, and youth violence prevention. Dr. Braithwaite has published in several peer-reviewed journals, co-authored a book and book chapters, and written articles for community newspapers. She is committed to promoting the health and well-being of culturally diverse families and the development of strategies to informing mental health policy. |
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Melany Mack, MSW
 Melany serves as manager for Planning and Special Services at the Ingham County Health Department in Lansing, Michigan. She also is Project Coordinator for the Ingham County Community Voices Initiative, serves as liaison with a number of community-based organizations using teams of community health workers in grassroots health outreach activities, and provides administrative oversight for outreach contracts. Melany supervises enforcement of the Ingham County Tobacco Licensing Regulation and oversees the Community Health Assessment and Improvement units, among other things. She completed an MSW at Michigan State University and is intensely interested in issues of community, health, and social justice. |
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Wayne Powell, BA, MA.
 Mr. Powell is the Project Director for Community Voices NMKellogg Foundation National Initiative “Healthcare for the Underserved” having served in that capacity for the entire 10 year grant period. He also serves as the Associate Director for the Office of the Vice President for Community Health (OVPCH), University of New Mexico, Health Sciences Center and Associate Director for the Institute for Public Health, OVPCH.
He was appointed as the first Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department. Other career experiences include: Deputy Secretary of NM Human Services Department, District Public Health Director for the State Department of Health, the Director of the State Office of Rural Health, State Director of Mental Health, Director of the Developmental Disabilities Division the Department of Health and the Executive Director of Eastern NM Rehabilitation Services, Inc. He started his professional career as a community service coordinator and caseworker in rural New Mexico.
He provides consultation to county and local communities on local policy development, intergovernmental relations and technical assistance in the design of interdisciplinary services utilizing a “Health Commons Model”. In his role in the Office of the Vice President for Community Health, he provides policy and administrative support in the development of the Health Science Center’s education, research and policy responses to communities throughout the state. The OVPCH is currently developing a “Health Extension Rural Offices (HEROS) model in cooperation with the New Mexico State University Agricultural Extension Services that will directly link the resources of the Health Sciences Center to the communities in the state.
He has participated as a panelist at national and international forums on topics including oral health, community health workers, health professions, health care reform and health and social services infrastructure issues.
He is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Center for Native American Health, the Department of Health’s Community Health Worker Advisory Committee, the Governor’s Oral Health Advisory Council, the Center’s of Excellence Border Health Consortium, the International “Towards Unity for Health Network” and the American Public Health Association.
He has co-authored articles for the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, and publications of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. |
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Marguerite Ro, DrPH is the Deputy Director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum
 Marguerite Ro, DrPH is the Deputy Director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum Formerly an Assistant Professor at Columbia University, Marguerite Ro held appointments in the College of Dental Medicine, the Mailman School of Public Health, and the Center for Community Health Partnerships. Dr. Ro spent the last several years working with underserved communities across the U.S. on improving access to healthcare through policy improvements and systems changes, primarily as the Senior Health Policy Analyst for the W.K. Kellogg Community Voices Initiative. Dr. Ro has conducted program management and evaluation for the American Legacy Foundation and the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York. She has authored numerous publications on issues including API health, community health workers, men’s health, mental health, and oral health. Dr. Ro received her Masters and Doctorate from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She is also a mother of a precocious but adorable daughter, Carmelita. |
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Dr. Liz Whitley
 Dr. Liz Whitley is Director of Community Voices at Denver Health, the public healthcare safety net for Denver, Colorado. Community Voices encompasses a number of community based, predominantly grant funded programs aimed at increasing access to healthcare for the underserved and influencing public policy.
Dr. Whitley is also Co-PI for the NCI funded patient navigation research program to determine the efficacy of patient navigators on decreasing time to diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients. She is also conducting research on the return on investment of Community Health Workers.
Prior to joining Denver Health, Dr. Whitley served as Executive Director and Senior Consultant at the Rocky Mountain Center for Healthcare Ethics. While at the Center, she was a teacher, author and speaker in the areas of clinical and corporate ethics and led a two-year collaborative project to create and publish the Colorado Code of Ethics for Healthcare. Before that, Dr. Whitley was Service Line Administrator for Women’s and Children’s Services at Lutheran Medical Center.
Dr. Whitley earned her doctorate from the University of Colorado, her undergraduate degree in Nursing from Indiana University and she is a certified Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. |
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